Comparative study of ion conducting pathways in borate glasses

Journal Article · Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVB.74.174205· OSTI ID:20853857

Hall, Andreas; Swenson, Jan ^[1]; Adams, Stefan ^[2]

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1. Department of Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, S-412 96 Goeteborg (Sweden)
2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117576 (Singapore)

The conduction pathways in metal-halide doped silver, lithium, and sodium diborate glasses have been examined by bond valence analysis of reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) produced structural models of the glasses. Although all glass compositions have basically the same short-range structure of the boron-oxygen network, it is evident that the intermediate-range structure is strongly dependent on the type of mobile ion. The topography of the pathways and the coordination of the pathway sites differ distinctly between the three glass systems. The mobile silver ions in the AgI-doped glass tend to be mainly iodine-coordinated and travel in homogeneously distributed pathways located in salt-rich channels of the borate network. In the NaCl-doped glass, there is an inhomogeneous spatial distribution of pathways that reflects the inhomogeneous introduction of salt ions into the glass. However, since the salt clusters are not connected, no long-range conduction pathways are formed without including also oxygen-rich regions. The pathways in the LiCl-doped glass are slightly more evenly distributed compared to the NaCl-doped glass (but not as ordered as in the AgI-doped glass), and the regions of mainly oxygen-coordinated pathway sites are of higher importance for the long-range migration. In order to more accurately investigate how these differences in the intermediate-range order of the glasses affect the ionic conductivity, we have compared the realistic structure models to more or less randomized structures. An important conclusion from this comparison is that we find no evidence that a pronounced intermediate-range order in the atomic structure or in the network of conduction pathways, as in the AgI-doped glass, is beneficial for the dc conductivity.

• OSTI ID: 20853857
• Journal Information: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 74, Issue 17; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.74.174205; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BORATES
BORON
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DOPED MATERIALS
GLASS
IODINE
IONIC CONDUCTIVITY
LITHIUM
LITHIUM CHLORIDES
MONTE CARLO METHOD
OXYGEN
SILVER
SILVER IODIDES
SILVER IONS
SODIUM
SODIUM CHLORIDES
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
STRUCTURAL MODELS
VALENCE