Synthesis, characterization and electrical conductivity studies on A 3Bi 2P 3O 12 (A = Na, K) materials

Abstract

Crystalline Na 3Bi 2P 3O 12, K 3Bi 2P 3O 12 and glassy K 3Bi 2P 3O 12 compounds were prepared by solid-state reaction method. The prepared samples are characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The crystalline materials are found to be orthorhombic. The electrical conductivity measurements on the crystalline and glassy samples show that at ∼373 K, the σ DC for crystalline K 3Bi 2P 3O 12 (0.81 × 10 −8 S/cm) is about two orders of magnitude higher than the corresponding glassy phase (1.25 × 10 −10 S/cm). The scaling results show that the conductivity relaxation mechanism is independent of temperature.