Tapia-Ruiz, N. et al. (2020) Low dimensional nanostructures of fast ion conducting lithium nitride. Nature Communications, 11, 4492. (doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17951-6) (PMID:32900996) (PMCID:PMC7479578)
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Abstract
As the only stable binary compound formed between an alkali metal and nitrogen, lithium nitride possesses remarkable properties and is a model material for energy applications involving the transport of lithium ions. Following a materials design principle drawn from broad structural analogies to hexagonal graphene and boron nitride, we demonstrate that such low dimensional structures can also be formed from an s-block element and nitrogen. Both one- and two-dimensional nanostructures of lithium nitride, Li3N, can be grown despite the absence of an equivalent van der Waals gap. Lithium-ion diffusion is enhanced compared to the bulk compound, yielding materials with exceptional ionic mobility. Li3N demonstrates the conceptual assembly of ionic inorganic nanostructures from monolayers without the requirement of a van der Waals gap. Computational studies reveal an electronic structure mediated by the number of Li-N layers, with a transition from a bulk narrow-bandgap semiconductor to a metal at the nanoscale.
| Item Type: | Articles |
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| Additional Information: | D.H.G. acknowledges the EPSRC for financial support under grants GR/S26965 and EP/E040071, the University of Nottingham for studentships to A.G.G. and H.K.E., the University of Glasgow for a studentship to C.W.D. and ScotCHEM for a studentship to N.T.-R. E.B. acknowledges a New Directions for EPSRC Research Leaders Award (EP/G005060), the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)/ERC grant agreement No. 307755-FIN and a Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship for financial support. M.B. and E.B. acknowledge the use of Athena at HPC Midlands+, which was funded by the EPSRC on grant EP/P020232/1 as part of the HPC Midlands+ consortium. |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Tapia, Miss Nuria and Gregory, Professor Duncan and MacLaren, Dr Ian |
| Authors: | Tapia-Ruiz, N., Gordon, A. G., Jewell, C. M., Edwards, H. K., Dunnill, C. W., Blackman, J. M., Snape, C. P., Brown, P. D., MacLaren, I., Baldoni, M., Besley, E., Titman, J. J., and Gregory, D. H. |
| College/School: | College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy |
| Journal Name: | Nature Communications |
| Publisher: | Nature Research |
| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |
| ISSN (Online): | 2041-1723 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2020 |
| First Published: | First published in Nature Research 11:4492 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy |
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