Argonne National Laboratory

Research Highlight | Center for Nanoscale Materials

Tiny impurities have large impacts in solid electrolytes
In a study published in Nature Materials, researchers investigated grain boundaries in a solid electrolyte at an unprecedentedly small scale. The insight could provide new avenues for improving material performance.
Electron holography of a grain boundary in 0.2 cation% Sm doped ceria: (a) hologram over a 48 nm field of view, (b) reconstructed phase map (c) potential map of the yellow boxed region in (b); and (d) electric potential profile integrated over the area depicted in (c). The red dashed line in (b) corresponds to the edge of the sample.

Scientific Achievement

Two powerful techniques – electron holography and atom probe tomography – allowed observation of solid electrolyte grain boundaries at small scales and the potential effects of trace impurities of less than 25 parts per million.

Significance and Impact

Reducing resistance to the flow of ions in solid electrolytes can improve battery and fuel cell efficiency; chemical tunability of grain boundary potential may be an effective strategy.

Research Details

  • Off-axis electron holography was performed at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) to characterize the potential variations around grain boundaries.
  • Atom probe tomography was performed at Northwestern University to map impurity distributions around grain boundaries.

Work was performed in part at CNM.

DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-0656-1

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About Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials
The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers, premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale supported by the DOE Office of Science. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOE’s Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. For more information about the DOE NSRCs, please visit https://​sci​ence​.osti​.gov/​U​s​e​r​-​F​a​c​i​l​i​t​i​e​s​/​U​s​e​r​-​F​a​c​i​l​i​t​i​e​s​-​a​t​-​a​-​G​lance.

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