Defect control and ionic conductivity of oxynitride perovskite Sr0.83Li0.17Ta0.83O1.88N0.74

Abstract Perovskite lattice was tailored by introducing site vacancies and mixed anion composition, to produce Sr0.83Li0.17Ta0.83O1.88N0.74 (Li02N). Further, Li02N was converted to a defect oxide Sr0.83Li0.17Ta0.83O3 (Li02O) by applying an optimized treatment: heating in air at 1173 K for 2 h. According to the neutron Rietveld refinement, Li02N and Li02O are tetragonal and orthorhombic, respectively, where the lattice volume of Li02O is significantly smaller than that of Li02N. The ionic conductivity (σion) of Li02N and Li02O was evaluated by the ac impedance spectroscopy and the equivalent circuit analysis. Both Li02N (σion = 10−5.5 S/cm at 671 K) and Li02O (σion = 10−6.2 S/cm at 667 K) exhibited an Arrhenius behavior of ionic conductivity with activation energies of 0.87 eV and 0.75 eV, respectively. It is interpreted that the nitride component enhances the ionic conduction of Li02N, while the vacancy of the anion lattice makes an opposite effect.