Thermal, structural, and electrical measurements on polycrystalline Li20 and certain Li20-based mixed oxides [LisMO4 (M ----A1, Fe, and Ga), Li20 -tZnO, LiYO2, and Li20 Jr Y203 mixtures] indicate that LiOH is produced within these materials on exposure to a moist environment. The presence of LiOH produces an endothermic reaction at ~400°C and a large increase in ionic conductivity above ~400°C [~ = 0.1 (12-cm)-1 at 500°C]. These features are absent under dry conditions (no LiOH). In the dry state, the ionic conductivity varies nearly exponentially with temperature (activation energies of ,~0.5-1.0 eV) and has values ranging from 10 -4 to 10 -~ (~%-cm) -1 at 500-C. All of these materials, except possibly for the Y-containing compounds, appear to have common ionic conductivity characteristics. The electrical and structural properties of the LisMO4 compounds are reproducible on cycling between wet (containing LiOH) and dry (no LiOH) conditions. This does not appear to be the case for the other materials. There is a significant (1-50%) electronic contribution to the conductivity in these materials.There is considerable interest in developing solid lithium ion conductors for potential use in a variety of applications including high energy batteries (1-3). This has lead to a search for new solid electrolytes exhibiting lithium ion conductivity and has stimulated interest in developing a fundamental understanding of ionic transport in solids. Several recent papers have discussed the conduction properties of potential lithium ion solid electrolytes (1-5). Two among the most promising are Li3N [¢(25 °) ~ 1 × 10 -a, ~(300 °) 7 × 10 -2 (~-cm) -1] (4) and Li-~-alumina [q(25 °) 1.3 × 10 -4 ,~(300 °) ~ 9 × 10 -3 (E~-cm)-l] (5). This paper gives thermal, structural, and electrical results obtained on several mixed metal-oxide systems based on Li20. The ionic conductivity of several well-known oxide ion conductors which have the fluorite structure (e.g., CaO stabilized ZrO2) can be explained by an anion vacancy conduction mechanism (6). By analogy, it might be possible to prepare cation conductors by introducing cation vacancies into the inverse-fluorite structure of Li20. Based on this premise the ionic conductivity of several materials in which aliovalent cations were substituted for lithium was investigated in this study. Specifically, the materials examined are polycrystalline Li20, LisMO4 (M : A1, Fe, and Ga), 75 mole percent (m/o) Li20 -t-25 m/o ZnO, LiYO2, and two mixtures of Li20 ~-Y203.An earlier investigation of LisA104, LisGaO4, and LisZnO4 by Raistrick et al. (7) had revealed an anomalous increase in the ionic conductivity of these materials at ,~ 400°C. Values up to 0.5 (~-cm)-i were reported at 500°C which made these materials of interest for thermal battery applications. Our initial studies of * Electrochemical Society Active Member. Key words: electrolyte, ceramics, conductance, DTA.Li~A104 (8) showed that the large conductivity increase was not an intrinsic property of Li~A104 but was due to the presenc...