Conductivity in alkali doped CoO-B2O3 glasses

Abstract

Two series of cobalt-borate glasses doped with Li2O and K2O in single and mixed proportions have been synthesized by melt quenching method and investigated for ac conductivity in the frequency range of 50Hz to 5MHz and temperature range of 310K to 610K. From the measured total conductivity, the pure ac component and its frequency exponent, s were determined. In the single alkali doped glasses, for all the frequencies, the conductivity increased with increase of Li2O up to 0.4 mole fractions and decreased for further increase of Li2O. The temperature dependence of conductivity has been analyzed using Mott's small polaron hopping model and activation energy for ac conduction has been determined. Based on conductivity and activation behaviors, in single alkali glasses, a change over of conduction mechanism predominantly from ionic to electronic has been predicted. In mixed alkali doped glasses, the conductivity passed through minimum and activation energy passed through maximum for second alkali (K2O) content of 0.2 mole fractions. This result revealed the mixed alkali effect to be occurring at 0.2 mole fractions of K2O. The frequency exponent, s, was compared with theoretical models such as Quantum Mechanical Tunneling and Correlated Barrier Hopping models and found them to be inadequate to explain the experimental observations. Time-temperature superposition principle has been verified in both the sets of glasses.