journal article·2026-05Open access

Superionic Conduction Through Lattice Engineering of Fluorites Stabilizing Periodic Oxygen Vacancy Network

Shahzad Rasool, Muhammad Faisal Anwar, Sarfraz, Nabeela Akbar, Wei Zhou, Shuo Wan, Rizwan Raza, Muhammad Afzal, Li Sun, Chenjie Lou, Mingxue Tang, Aristides D. Zdetsis, Hind Himayyid Aljaddani, Mohamed Elfleet, Peter D. Lund, Muhammad Imran Asghar, Yifu Jing, Qi Fan, Bin Zhu

Abstract

Superionic conductors with an exceptionally high ionic conductivity are placed central in the development of next‐generation energy conversion and storage technologies, yet their designing approach and materials remain a persistent challenge. Here, we report an alternative cation‐ordered Ce–Al (1:1) fluorite oxide (ACO) that stabilizes a periodic oxygen vacancy (O v ) network to build the required architecture. The resulting lattice‐engineered configuration creates a uniform and flattened potential energy landscape with significantly reduced activation energy, capable of a superionic conductivity of 0.216 S cm −1 and a fuel cell power density of 1086 mW cm −2 at 500 °C. Unlike conventional random ion hopping in doped oxides, the vacancy‐ordered framework supports coherent, phonon‐assisted and wave‐like ions motion enabling dielectric‐enhanced superionic conduction. These findings introduce a new family of superionic conductors, where lattice‐level ordering of both cations and O v s offers a scalable design strategy for high‐performance efficient electrochemical systems.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advancements in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells · Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction · Inorganic Fluorides and Related Compounds

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

School of Energy and Environment Southeast University No.2 Si Pai Lou Nanjing 210096 China

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiulonghu Campus Southeast University Nanjing 211189 China

Department of Physics COMSATS University Islamabad Lahore Campus Lahore Pakistan

Department of Mechanical Engineering University of South Carolina Columbia SC 29201 USA

Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and the Environment Southeast University Nanjing 210096 China

Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research Beijing 100193 China

Molecular Engineering Laboratory, Department of Physics University of Patras Patras 26500 GR Greece

Department of Physical Sciences, College of Science University of Jeddah P.O. Box 80327 Jeddah 21589 Saudi Arabia

Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies King Abdulaziz University P.O. Box 80200 Jeddah 21589 Saudi Arabia

Department of Applied Physics Aalto University School of Science P. O. Box 15100, FI‐00076 Aalto Espoo Finland

Renewable Energy Technologies Group, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Tampere University Tampere FI‐33014 Finland

Department of Mechanical Engineering Southeast University No.2 Si Pai Lou Nanjing 210096 China

Department of Material Science Shenzhen MSU‐BIT University Shenzhen 518000 China

Department of Chemical Engineering Loughborough University Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 3TU UK

Funding

Academy of Finland · Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology

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