On the underestimated influence of synthetic conditions in solid ionic conductors

The development of high - performance inorganic solid electrolytes is central toachieving high energy density solid-state batteries. Whereas these solid-state materials are oftenprepared via classic solid-state syntheses, recent efforts in the community have shown thatmechanochemical reactions, solution syntheses, microwave syntheses, and various postsyntheticheat treatment routines can drastically affect the structure and microstructure, andwith it the transport properties of the materials. On the one hand, these are importantconsiderations for an upscaling of a materials processing route for industrial applications andan industrial production. On the other hand, it shows that the influence of the different syntheseson the materials’ properties is neither well understood fundamentally nor broadly internalizedwell.Here we aim to review the recent efforts on understanding the influence of the syntheticprocedure on the synthesis – (micro)structure – transport correlations in superionic conductors.Our aim is to provide the field of solid-state research a direction for future efforts to betterunderstand current materials properties based on synthetic routes, rather than having an overlysimplistic idea of any given composition having an intrinsic conductivity. We hope this reviewwill shed light on the underestimated influence of synthesis on the transport properties of solidelectrolytes toward the design of syntheses of future solid electrolytes and help guide industrialefforts of known materials