The conduction mechanism of thin film solid state electrolytes (FWOAL625)

The materials which play the central role in this project are electrically conductive due to the presence of mobile ions. To reach a high enough conductivity, these materials, so-called solid state electrolytes, are used at high temperature. To reduce the application temperature, the film thickness can be decreased. However, some well-known relationships connecting ion conductivity to crystallinity and composition, derived for bulk and thick film materials, become questionable when reducing the thickness to 1%m and less. The goal of the research project is to investigate the parameters which influence the ion conductivity of thin films. To deposit these thin films reactive magnetron sputtering will be used. This technique allows to modify the morphology and composition in a flexible way. This opens the possibility to produce thin film samples with a broad spectrum of properties influencing the ion conductivity. The influence of composition and morphology will not only be investigated on the global ion conductivity but also at the nanometer scale. To reach this goal a new AFM based diagnostic tool to measure the local impedance will be developed. This fundamental research will enable to propose new routes to materials with high ion conductivity

Keywords:material science, thermal analysis, chemistry, surface analysis, NMR, polymer science, engineering, electrochemistry

Disciplines:Physical sciences, (Bio)chemical engineering, Other engineering and technology, Chemical sciences, Materials engineering