Elaboration by a soft chemistry process of zirconium-deficient NaSICON compositions.

This paper deals with the preparation of a family of ionic conductor cerami cs known as NaSICON (Na Super Ionic CONductor) and with their characterizat ion. For this family constituted of silicon, sodium, phosphorus and zirconi um, an original process is proposed to obtain pure ceramics. Precursors are sodium nitrate, zirconyl nitrate, ammonium phosphate, tetraethoxysilan (TE OS), nitric acid and ethanol. New compositions unknown in literature (Na3.2 Zr1.9Si1.5P1.5O12 et Na2.8Zr1.8Si1.1P1.9O12) were studied. The thermal deco mposition of the precursors was performed with a slow heating rate. It was studied by ATD-ATG and X-ray diffraction. The thermal decomposition leads t o the oxide at 750 degrees C, which was characterized by X-ray diffraction.