What if electric vehicles and low-altitude aircraft could operate stably in extreme cold as low as -50°C, completely eliminating battery anxiety? This vision may soon become reality.
A team led by Academician Xuejiang, Chair Professor of Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo (EIT), Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, with collaborators, has developed a new superionic conductor that offers a novel technological pathway toward high-performance all-solid-state batteries—particularly those exhibiting exceptional cycling stability and rate capability under extreme conditions. The related research was published in Science on October 10.
In a study titled "Anion sublattice design enables superionic conductivity in crystalline oxyhalides," Academician Xuejiang Sun's team at EIT, together with Professor Yifei Mo's group at the University of Maryland, reported the development of a new superionic conductor, Li₃Ta₃O₄Cl₁₀, which achieves a record room-temperature ionic conductivity of 13.7 mS/cm among halide-based solid electrolytes, and enables highly stable all-solid-state battery operation even at -50°C.
This work demonstrates that anionic framework engineering gives oxyhalides a unique crystal structure and ultrahigh ionic conductivity, offering new insights for understanding and applying mixed-anion solid electrolytes. According to Academician Xueliang Sun's team, the emergence of this novel oxyhalide electrolyte breaks the theoretical barrier that only sulfides enable continuous low-coordination conduction. This not only contributes to the development of fast ion conductors but also opens new directions for exploring crystalline mixed-anion electrolytes. It provides a new technical route for realizing high-performance all-solid-state batteries—especially those with excellent cycling stability and rate performance in extreme environments—and is expected to accelerate the transition of all-solid-state batteries from the laboratory to practical applications.
The co-first authors are Dr. Feipeng Zhao (former postdoctoral fellow at Western University, now Specially-Appointed Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University), Dr. Shumin Zhang (former postdoctoral fellow at Western University, now Professor at the School of Physical Science and Technology, Soochow University), Assistant Professor Shuo Wang of EIT, and Dr. Joel W. Reid of the Canadian Light Source. The corresponding authors are Chair Professor Xuejiang Sun of EIT and Professor Yifei Mo of the University of Maryland. Co-authors include Assistant Professor Weihan Li and Assistant Professor Wei Xia of EIT. This work received support from Dr. Jue Liu of the Neutron Diffraction Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States.
