Study on Composite Solid Electrolyte Systems: Theory and Materials

Abstract

Since the discovery of electricity, electrical properties of materials have supported our convenient everyday life and “electrical conduction” has been one of the most important properties of materials. There are two types of electrical conduction in materials: one is electronic conduction in which charge carriers are electrons or holes and the other is ionic conduction in which charge carriers are ions. Superionic conductors also called solid electrolytes are a class of materials exhibiting ionic conductivity comparable to strong liquid electrolytes, though they are in the solid state. Solid electrolytes present numerous potential advantages over liquid electrolytes, including absence of liquid containment and leakage problems, ability to operate with highly reactive electrodes over a wider temperature range, and the possibility for miniaturization using thin-film-processing techniques. Solid state ionic is now a thrust area because of ever increasing demand of superionic conductors and the most widely used method for the preparation of superionic conductors is the direct reaction in the solid state called solid state reaction. Though solid state reactions were known for a long time, it was only during the last few decades that interest has been focused both experimentally and theoretically in revealing the secrets of the atomic structures of crystals and their reactivity.