Lin Yange, Olvera de la Cruz Monica
Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Department of Chemistry, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Phys Rev E. 2020 Mar;101(3-1):032603. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.101.032603.
In superionic compounds one component premelts, providing high ionic conductivity to solid-state electrolytes. Here we find sublattice melting in colloidal crystals of oppositely charged particles that are highly asymmetric in size and charge in salt solutions. The small particles in ionic compounds melt when the temperature increases, forming a superionic phase. These delocalized small particles in a crystal of large oppositely charged particles, in contrast to superionic phases in atomic systems, form crystals with nonelectroneutral stoichiometric ratios. This generates structures with multiple domains of ionic crystals in percolated superionic phases with adjustable stoichiometries.
