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Low dimensional nanostructures of fast ion conducting lithium nitride

Tapia-Ruiz, Nuria; Gordon, Alexandra G.; Jewell, Catherine M.; Edwards, Hannah K.; Dunnill, Charles W.; Blackman, James M.; Snape, Colin P.; Brown, Paul D.; MacLaren, Ian; Baldoni, Matteo; Besley, Elena; Titman, Jeremy J.; Gregory, Duncan H.

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Authors

Nuria Tapia-Ruiz

Alexandra G. Gordon

Catherine M. Jewell

Hannah K. Edwards

Charles W. Dunnill

James M. Blackman

COLIN SNAPE COLIN.SNAPE@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Chemical Technology & Chemical Eng

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PAUL BROWN PAUL.BROWN@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Materials Characterisation

Ian MacLaren

Matteo Baldoni

Jeremy J. Titman

Duncan H. Gregory



Abstract

As the only stable binary compound formed between an alkali metal and nitrogen, lithium nitride is a material with remarkable properties and 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 1D (wire/fibre) lithium nitride nanostructures can be grown despite the absence of an equivalent van der Waals gap. To our knowledge, these are the first examples of anisotropic nanomaterials synthesized from an s-block element and nitrogen. Lithium-ion diffusion is enhanced compared to the bulk compound, yielding materials with exceptional ionic mobility. Lithium nitride demonstrates that in principle it is conceivable to construct ionic inorganic nanostructures by assembling monolayers without the requirement of a van der Waals gap. Computational studies on ?-Li3N demonstrate 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.

Citation

Tapia-Ruiz, N., Gordon, A. G., Jewell, C. M., Edwards, H. K., Dunnill, C. W., Blackman, J. M., …Gregory, D. H. (2020). Low dimensional nanostructures of fast ion conducting lithium nitride. Nature Communications, 11, Article 4492. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17951-6

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 28, 2020
Online Publication Date Sep 8, 2020
Publication Date Sep 8, 2020
Deposit Date Aug 3, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Nature Communications
Electronic ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher Nature Publishing Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Article Number 4492
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17951-6
Keywords General Physics and Astronomy; General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Chemistry
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4807899
Publisher URL https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17951-6

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