We report a solid-state
Li-ion electrolyte predicted to exhibit simultaneously fast ionic
conductivity, wide electrochemical stability, low cost, and low mass
density. We report exceptional density functional theory (DFT)-based
room-temperature single-crystal ionic conductivity values for two
phases within the crystalline lithium–boron–sulfur (Li–B–S)
system: 62 (+9, −2) mS cm–1 in Li5B7S13 and 80 (−56, −41) mS cm–1 in Li9B19S33. We
report significant ionic conductivity values for two additional phases:
between 0.0056 and 0.16 mS/cm –1 in Li2B2S5 and between 0.0031 and 9.7 mS cm–1 in Li3BS3 depending on the room-temperature
extrapolation scheme used. To our knowledge, our prediction gives
Li9B19S33 and Li5B7S13 the second and third highest reported DFT-computed
single-crystal ionic conductivities of any crystalline material. We
compute the thermodynamic electrochemical stability window widths
of these materials to be 0.50 V for Li5B7S13, 0.16 V for Li2B2S5, 0.45
V for Li3BS3, and 0.60 V for Li9B19S33. Individually, these materials exhibit similar
or better ionic conductivity and electrochemical stability than the
best-known sulfide-based solid-state Li-ion electrolyte materials,
including Li10GeP2S12 (LGPS). However,
we predict that electrolyte materials synthesized from a range of
compositions in the Li–B–S system may exhibit even wider
thermodynamic electrochemical stability windows of 0.63 V and possibly
as high as 3 V or greater. The Li–B–S system also has
a low elemental cost of approximately 0.05 USD/m2 per 10
μm thickness, which is significantly lower than that of germanium-containing
LGPS, and a comparable mass density below 2 g/cm3. These
fast-conducting phases were initially brought to our attention by
a machine learning-based approach to screen over 12,000 solid electrolyte
candidates, and the evidence provided here represents an inspiring
success for this model.