Development of a High-Throughput Screening Method for Oxide-Ion Conductors and Its Application to Bismuth-Based Oxide Library Thin Films.

To accelerate material discovery, we develop a screening method for oxide-ion conductors that comprises combinatorial synthesis using chemical-solution deposition and high-throughput measurements using X-ray diffraction and conductivity. The present method allows us to form an arbitrary and uniform composition within an evaluation area at an arbitrary position in the library on a substrate. This screening method is applied to ABi2Zr x(Nb1- yTa y)1- xO9 bismuth-layered compounds, which are known to have relatively high oxide-ion conductivities but are yet to be examined thoroughly. By making systematic thin-film libraries for A = Sr or Ca, we aim to find the optimized composition. The total time required for synthesis, phase identification, and conductivity measurements is found to be significantly shorter than that with the conventional method, and the maximum oxide-ion conductivity of this compound in the libraries reaches 10-3 S/cm at 800 °C.