In this work, Ta-substituted Li 7 La 3 Zr 2-x O 12 (LLZTO) powder and pellets with garnet cubic structure were fabricated and characterized by modified and optimized sol-gel synthesis. Ta-substituted LLZO powder with the smallest grain size and pure cubic structure with little pyrochlore phase was obtained by synthesis method in which Li and La sources in propanol solvent were mixed together with Zr and Ta sources in 2-methoxy ethanol. The LLZTO pellets made with the prepared powder showed cubic garnet structure for all conditions when the amount of Li addition was varied from 6.2 to 7.4 mol. All the X-ray peaks of the pyrochlore phase disappeared when the Li addition was increased above 7.0 mol. When the final sintering temperature was varied, the LLZTO pellet had a pyrochlore-mixed cubic phase above 1000 o C. However, the surface morphology became much denser when the final sintering temperature was increased. The sol-gel-driven LLZTO pellet with a sintering temperature of 1100 o C showed a lithium ionic conductivity of 0.21 mS/cm when Au was adopted as electrode material for the blocking capacitor. The results of this study suggest that modified sol-gel synthesis is the optimum method to obtain cubic phase of LLZTO powder for highly dense and conductive solid electrolyte ceramics.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.