Impedance spectroscopy and conductivity studies of KCl-doped solid electrolyte

Abstract

(CuCl)4−2x−(KCl)x–CdCl2, x = 0.0–0.4 solid electrolytes were grown via solid-state reaction procedure by suitable heat treatment. An AC impedance spectroscopy suggested that the ionic conductivity mainly arisen from grain effect. A DC electrical conductivity of 3.94 × 10−5 Scm−1 was measured for the x = 0.3 composition at 320 °C. This also shows lowest activation energy in the temperature range of 293–593 K. This has been explained by that fact that at high temperatures thermal disturbances through lattice vibrations take place. In such a high-temperature region, Cu+ readily jumps and migrates at short range, but the number of mutual collisions also increases resulting in a decrease of the Cu+ mobility. The present study reveals that the change in conductivity value depends on concentration of doped ingredient as well as on various parameters in the system. Therefore, these solid electrolytes will be suitable for the development of different electrochemical applications.