Nanocrystallite effects on ion transport in molybdophosphate glasses

In this work we have reported the structure and electrical properties of Ag+ ion conducting glasses of composition xAg2S–(1 − x)(0.40Ag2O–0.30MoO3–0.30P2O5) with varying Ag2S content (x = 0.10,0.20, 0.30 and 0.40 mol fraction). An attempt has been made to correlate the microscopic structure of these glasses to the macroscopic ion transport properties. The structural characterization of these samples has been accomplished using scanning electron and transmission electron microscopic studies. The presence of nanocrystallites has been observed in high Ag2S containing glass (x = 0.40). The electrical measurements have been performed in wide frequency and temperature ranges. The dc conductivity depends strongly on the composition and shows a close correlation with the microstructure of the glasses. The ac conductivity shows a power law dependence on frequency. The scaling of the ac conductivity spectra for different temperatures and compositions has been performed to understand the effect of nanocrystallite formation on the relaxation dynamics.