A metastable polymorph of vanadium sesquioxide was prepared by the reaction of vanadium trifluoride with a water-saturated gaseous mixture of 10 vol % hydrogen in argon. The new polymorph crystallizes in the bixbyite-type structure. At temperatures around 823 K a transformation to the well-known corundum-type phase is observed. Quantum-chemical calculations show that the bixbyite-type structure is about 9 kJ/mol less stable than the known corundum-based one. This result, in combination with the absence of imaginary modes in the phonon density of states, supports the classification of the bixbyite-type phase as a metastable V(2)O(3) polymorph. At ~50 K a paramagnetic to canted antiferromagnetic transition is detected.

Lithium aluminum oxide (γ-LiAlO 2 ) has been discussed and used for various applications, e.g., as electrode coating, membrane, or tritium breeder material. Although lithium-ion diffusion in this solid is essential for these purposes, it is still not sufficiently understood on the microscopic scale. Herein, we not only summarize and assess the available studies on diffusion in different crystalline forms of γ-LiAlO 2 , but also complement them with tracerdiffusion experiments on (001)-and conductivity spectroscopy on (100)oriented single crystals, yielding activation energies of 1.20(5) and 1.12(1) eV, respectively. Scrutinous crystal-chemical considerations, Voronoi− Dirichlet partitioning, and Hirshfeld surface analysis are employed to identify possible diffusion pathways. The one-particle potential, as derived from hightemperature powder neutron diffraction data presented as well, reveals the major path to be strongly curved and to run between adjacent lithium positions with a migration barrier of 0.72(5) eV. This finding is substantiated by comparison with recently published computational results. For the first time, a complete model for lithium-ion diffusion in γ-LiAlO 2 , consistent with all available data, is presented.

A sol-gel route for ternary lithium fluorides of transition metals (M) is presented allowing the synthesis of Li 3 MF 6 -type and Li 2 MF 5 -type compounds. It is based on a fluorolytic process using transition metal acetylacetonates as precursors. The domain size of the obtained powders can be controlled by modifying the conditions of synthesis. 6 Li and 7 Li magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is used to study local environments of the Li ions in orthorhombic and monoclinic Li 3 VF 6 as well as Li 2 MnF 5 . The number of magnetically inequivalent Li sites found by MAS NMR is in agreement with the respective crystal structure of the compounds studied. Quantum chemical calculations show that all materials have high de-lithiation energies making them suitable candidates to be used as high-voltage battery cathode materials.

Fast ion conductors play one of the most important roles in solid state ionics as there is a great demand for their application in safe and powerful electrochemical energy storage systems. For such materials, it is known that the synthesis conditions may have significant impact on the final properties of the materials prepared. In this contribution, we made use of mechanosynthesis, carried out via high‐energy ball milling, to influence the ionic transport parameters of tetragonal, i.e., layer‐structured, BaSnF4. X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD) revealed that mechanical treatment of the binary fluorides BaF2 and SnF2 leads to a powder pointing to a nanocrystalline fluoride with (distorted) cubic symmetry. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as well as preliminary in situ XRD measurements were used to follow the transformation towards the tetragonal modification with the composition BaSnF4. Broadband impedance spectroscopy was used to measure the overall electrical conductivity of the ternary fluoride. Remarkably, the layered form shows a room temperature conductivity of 7 × 10–4 S cm–1. Further emphasis was put on the characterization of the dielectric properties of the material, which was investigated by using different electrode materials to distinguish artefacts from intrinsic properties. Since we found a strong dependence of the real part of the permittivity on the electrode materials applied (carbon paste or sputtered Pt), we tend to assign the huge increase in permittivity, which was recently interpreted as giant dielectric constant, to interfacial polarization effects rather than to intrinsic properties. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Layer-structured materials, such as graphite (LiCy) or Lix(Co,Ni,Mn)O2, are important electrode materials in current battery research that still relies on insertion materials. This is due to their excellent ability to reversibly accommodate small alkali ions such as Li(+) and Na(+). Despite of these applications, microscopic information on Li ion self-diffusion in transition metal sulfides are relatively rare. Here, we used (7)Li nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study translational Li ion diffusion in hexagonal (2H) LixNbS2 (x = 0.3, 0.7, and 1) by means of variable-temperature NMR relaxometry. (7)Li spin-lattice relaxation rates and (7)Li NMR spectra were used to determine Li jump rates and activation barriers as a function of Li content. Hereby, NMR spin-lattice relaxation rates recorded with the spin-lock technique offered the possibility to study Li ion dynamics on both the short-range and long-range length scale. Information was extracted from complete diffusion-induced rate peaks that are obtained when the relaxation rate is plotted vs inverse temperature. The peak maximum of the three samples studied shifts toward higher temperatures with increasing Li content x in 2H-LixNbS2. Information on the dimensionality of the diffusion process was experimentally obtained by frequency dependent Rρ measurements carried out at T = 444 K, that is in the high-temperature regime of the rate peaks. A slight, but measurable frequency-dependence within this limit is found for all samples; it is in good agreement with predictions from relaxation models developed to approximate low-dimensional (2D) jump diffusion.

Two-dimensional (2D) exchange nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy carried out under magic angle spinning (MAS) conditions is ideally suited to study site-specific Li diffusion parameters of cathode materials required for the target-oriented development of so-called high-energy density 4 V-lithium-ion batteries. In the present study, we took advantage of Li NMR hyperfine shifts to record temperature-variable 1D and mixing-time dependent 2D exchange MAS 6Li NMR spectra on α-Li3VF6 serving as both a potential cathode material as well as an application-oriented model substance with three magnetically inequivalent Li sites. By comparing the NMR results with structural details of the material we were able to obtain detailed insights into the migration pathways and Li exchange rates which are of the order of some hundreds of Li jumps per second at approximately 340 K. Site-specific Li jump rates τ−1 reveal the electrochemically active sites and provide information how to modify the material in order to increase its relatively low Li diffusivity found at room temperature.

Fundamental research on lithium ion dynamics in solids is important to develop functional materials for, e.g. sensors or energy storage systems. In many cases a comprehensive understanding is only possible if experimental data are compared with predictions from diffusion models. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), besides other techniques such as mass tracer or conductivity measurements, is known as a versatile tool to investigate ion dynamics. Among the various time-domain NMR techniques, NMR relaxometry, in particular, serves not only to measure diffusion parameters, such as jump rates and activation energies, it is also useful to collect information on the dimensionality of the underlying diffusion process. The latter is possible if both the temperature and, even more important, the frequency dependence of the diffusion-induced relaxation rates of actually polycrystalline materials is analyzed. Here we present some recent systematic relaxometry case studies using model systems that exhibit spatially restricted Li ion diffusion. Whenever possible we compare our results with data from other techniques as well as current relaxation models developed for 2D and 1D diffusion. As an example, 2D ionic motion has been verified for the hexagonal form of LiBH

Ammonolysis of vanadium sulfide leads to the formation of bixbyite-type vanadium oxide nitrides. Small amounts of nitrogen incorporated in the structure result in the stabilization of the bixbyite type not known for vanadium oxides. The crystal structure was investigated using X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. At temperatures above 550 • C the powders decompose to corundumtype V 2 O 3 containing no detectable amount of nitrogen. Below 39 K magnetic ordering is observed.