Effect of Alkaline earth oxides on the ionic conductivity of Boro-Tellurite glasses for solid state ion batteries

Abstract The complex impedance spectroscopy studies (electrical impedance, a.c. conductivity, dielectric constant, loss tangent) of the boro-tellurite glasses were measured as a function of the alkaline earth oxide content at broad range of frequencies and temperatures. Three series of boro-tellurite glasses containing BaO/SrO viz. BaO-TeO 2 -TiO 2 -B 2 O 3 (BTTB), BaO-TeO 2 -B 2 O 3 (BTB) and SrO-TeO 2 -TiO 2 -B 2 O 3 (STTB) were prepared by the melt quenching method. The prepared glasses were characterized by XRD, DSC, density, FTIR and complex impedance spectroscopy experimental techniques. The XRD spectra exhibited no characteristic sharp peaks indicating the amorphous nature of the prepared glass samples. The glass transition temperature (T g ) values were evaluated from the DSC thermograms. The density values were found to increase with BaO content while they decreased with SrO content. This variation was attributed to the different density values of BaO and SrO. FTIR spectra revelated the presence of different structural units like BO 3 and BO 4 . Impedance studies demonstrated that the replacement of TeO 2 by the BaO content enhanced the ionic conductivity. The impedance plots of BTTB, BTB and STTB glasses exhibited nearlys semicircles. The bulk resistance (R b ) was calculated from the impedance plots. It was observed that the R b values decrease with increasing BaO in BTTB and BTB glasses, while it increased with SrO in STTB glasses which may be attributed to the variation of mobile charge carriers. The R b values vary as BTB > BTTB > STTB. The capacitance calculated from the impedance plots increased with increasing BaO mol% and decreasing SrO mol%. The capacitance also increased with increasing temperature. The power law exponent (k) values decrease with increasing temperature. Therefore, the ac conduction mechanism may follow correlated barrier hopping model. The real part of dielectric constant ε ′ has high values at low frequencies, which decreased rapidly with surge of frequency. At high frequencies the contribution of charge accumulation is minimum resulting in constant ε ′ .