# What dictates soft clay-like Lithium superionic conductor formation from rigid-salts mixture Source: [What dictates soft clay-like Lithium superionic conductor formation from rigid-salts mixture]() Collection index: [llms.txt]() Data updated: 2025-10-27T04:26:10.015Z Authors: Sunny Gupta, Xiaochen Yang, Gerbrand Ceder Published: 2023-07-05T04:08:27.000Z ## Abstract Soft clay-like Li-superionic conductors have been recently synthesized by mixing rigid-salts. Through computational and experimental analysis, we clarify how a soft clay-like material can be created from a mixture of rigid-salts. Using molecular dynamics simulations with a deep learning-based interatomic potential energy model, we uncover the microscopic features responsible for soft clay-formation from ionic solid mixtures. We find that salt mixtures capable of forming molecular solid units on anion exchange, along with the slow kinetics of such reactions, are key to soft-clay formation. Molecular solid units serve as sites for shear transformation zones, and their inherent softness enables plasticity at low stress. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy confirms the formation of molecular solid units. A general strategy for creating soft clay-like materials from ionic solid mixtures is formulated. ## Recorded benchmark results A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage. ## Original sources and implementation [Original paper]() [PDF]()