Fast oxygen diffusion in A-site ordered perovskites

Materials demonstrating high ion diffusivity are currently attracting a great deal of attention owing to their huge technological potential. We have found that the oxygen diffusivity in doped perovskites, which are among the best oxygen conductors, can be further enhanced by orders of magnitude by inducing crystallographic ordering among lanthanide and alkali-earth ions in the A-site sublattice. Transformation of a simple cubic perovskite, with randomly occupied A-sites, into a layered crystal with alternating lanthanide and alkali-earth planes reduces the oxygen bonding strength and provides disorder-free channels for ion motion, pointing to an efficient way to design new ionic conductors.