Impact of Na Concentration on the Phase Transition Behavior and H^- Conductivities in the Ba-Li-Na-H-O Oxyhydride...

K₂ NiF₄ -type Ba-Li oxyhydride (BLHO) transitions to a so-called hydride superionic conductor, exhibiting a high and essentially temperature-independent hydride ion (H^- ) conductivity over 0.01 S cm^-1 through the disordering of H^- vacancies above 300 °C. In this study, a Ba-Li-Na-H-O oxyhydride system synthesized in which lithium is partially substituted with sodium in BLHO and investigated the effects of Na content on the phase transition behavior and the conductivity. Structural refinements and differential scanning calorimetry experiments confirmed a lowering trend in the phase transition temperatures and decreasing enthalpy changes for the transition with increasing Na content. Substitution of not <40% of Li with Na lowered the degree of ordered vacancies at the H^- sites at room temperature and improved conductivities by more than two orders of magnitude in the low-temperature region (T < 300 °C) before the phase transition. These findings clearly show that introducing Na into the lattice effectively stabilizes the high-conductive phase of BLHO.