Open AccessGa-Doped LLZO Solid-State Electrolyte with Unique “Plate-like” Morphology Derived from Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) Aquatic Weed: Waste to Wealth Conversion
Author(s) -
Kuntal Ghosh,
M. Raja
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
acs omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.779
H-Index - 40
ISSN - 2470-1343
DOI - 10.1021/acsomega.2c04012
Subject(s) - eichhornia crassipes , hyacinth , electrolyte , materials science , chemical engineering , microstructure , calcination , conductivity , doping , composite material , aquatic plant , chemistry , electrode , macrophyte , optoelectronics , biochemistry , ecology , organic chemistry , engineering , biology , catalysis
An attempt has been made for the first time to convert waste biomass such as water hyacinth (WH) to a functional energy material in a cost-effective way. The present research describes a novel exo-templating methodology to develop engineered microstructure of Ga-doped Li 7 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 (Li 6.25 La 3 Ga 0.25 Zr 2 O 12 , referred as WH-Ga-LLZO) solid-state electrolyte for its use in all solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs) by mimicking the intercellular structure of water hyacinth ( Eichhornia crassipes ), an invasive and noxious aquatic plant. The developed exo-templated methodology offers a low calcination temperature of 1000 °C in air where all the major peaks could be indexed as cubic garnet, as confirmed by XRD. The FESEM micrographs revealed a unique "plate-like" morphology that mimicked the intercellular structure of water hyacinth fiber. The bulk lithium-ion conductivity in the WH-Ga-LLZO electrolyte was found to be 3.94 × 10 -5 S/cm. Li/WH-Ga-LLZO/Li cells were galvanostatically cycled for a continuous 295 h with increasing step current densities from 28 μA/cm 2 without a short circuit. The highest current density as measured for maximum polarization in a symmetric cell was found to be 452 μA/cm 2 . The WH exo-templated methodology was thus developed and optimized and can be extended for synthesizing any application-specific multifunctional materials.