Open AccessLithium Diffusion Pathways in 3R-LixTiS2: A Combined Neutron Diffraction and Computational Study
Author(s) -
Dennis Wiedemann,
Mazharul M. Islam,
Suliman Nakhal,
Anatoliy Senyshyn,
Thomas Bredow,
Martin Lerch
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of physical chemistry. c./journal of physical chemistry. c
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 289
eISSN - 1932-7455
pISSN - 1932-7447
DOI - 10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b01166
Subject(s) - neutron diffraction , density functional theory , ion , lithium (medication) , diffusion , materials science , reverse monte carlo , chemistry , chemical physics , thermodynamics , computational chemistry , crystallography , crystal structure , physics , medicine , organic chemistry , endocrinology
Layered lithium transition-metal sulfides have long been discussed as early electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries. However, fundamental knowledge of lithium-ion migration in these solids is still lacking. In this study, we report on the diffusion dynamics in lithium-deficient high-temperature polymorphs of lithium titanium sulfides (3R-LixTiS2; x = 0.7, 0.9) as analyzed using powder neutron diffractometry and density functional theory (DFT) climbing-image nudged-elastic-band (cNEB) calculations. Two classes of probable migration pathways have been identified from the scattering-length density distributions (filtered using the maximum-entropy method [MEM]) and the probability density functions (PDFs, modeled from anharmonic Debye-Waller factors): direct diffusion in the (001) plane as the major mechanism and indirect diffusion through adjacent tetrahedral voids as a minor mechanism. Calculated activation barriers agree well with one-particle potentials (OPPs) derived from measurements for Li0.7TiS2 (0.484[14] and 0.88[4] eV) but deviate for Li0.9TiS2. The discrepancy at low defect concentration is attributed to the failure of the OPP derivation and the different nature of the methods (space-time averaged vs individual-ion perspective). This work elucidates the pathways of lithium-ion diffusion in 3R-LixTiS2 and points out pitfalls in established experimental/computational methods.DFG, FOR 1277, Mobilität von Lithiumionen in Festkörpern (molife