Effect of Low-Cost Spodumene Sintering Aids on Electrical Properties for Li0.25La0.25NbO3 Ceramic

In this work, a low-cost natural mineral material, spodumene is used as novel sintering aids for Li0.25La0.25NbO3 ceramics. Li0.25La0.25NbO3 (LLNO) with improved electrical properties are synthesized by the spodumene-assisted sintering via high temperature solid state method. The effects of spodumene sintering aids on structure, microstructure and electrical properties for LLNO solid electrolyte were investigated by using XRD, SEM and AC-impedance, respectively. LLNO sintered at 1000 °C exhibits a pure perovskite structure while the samples with added spodumene sintering aids contain some impurities. LLNO with 5 wt.% spodumene sintered at 1000 °C presents an ionic conductivity of 4.96 × 10-5 S·cm–1 at 25 °C with an activation energy of 0.32 eV. The conductivity of LLNO-5% spodumene sample is one times magnitude higher than that of pure LLNO. The results indicate that the introduction of spodumene successfully acts as a sintering aid for LLNO ceramic solid electrolytes.