Combined Effect of Halogenation and SiO₂ Addition on the Li-Ion Conductivity of LiBH₄

In this work, the combined effects of anion substitution (with Br- and I-) and SiO2 addition on the Li-ion conductivity in LiBH4 have been investigated. Hexagonal solid solutions with different compositions, h-Li(BH4)(1-alpha)(X)(alpha) (X = Br, I), were prepared by ball milling and fully characterized. The most conductive composition for each system was then mixed with different amounts of SiO2 nanoparticles. If the amount of added complex hydride fully fills the original pore volume of the added silica, in both LiBH4-LiBr/SiO2 and LiBH4-LiI/SiO2 systems, the Li-ion conductivity was further increased compared to the h-Li(BH4)(1-alpha)(X)(alpha) solid solutions alone. The use of LiBH4-LiX instead of LiBH4 in composites with SiO2 enabled the development of an optimal conductive pathway for the Li ions, since the h-Li(BH4)(1-alpha)(X)(alpha) possesses a higher conductivity than LiBH4. In fact, the Li conductivity of the silica containing h-Li(BH4)(1-alpha)(X)(alpha) is higher than the maximum reached in LiBH4-SiO2 alone. Therefore, a synergetic effect of combining halogenation and interface engineering is demonstrated in this work.