Ion Transport Properties of Some Mixed Halide Based Oxide Dispersed Composite Electrolyte Systems

Abstract

Composite solid electrolytes are a one class of electrolytes. The primary concern of these electrolytes is ionic conductivity ( ) s based on various transport characteristics. Though the alkali halides are intrinsic ionic conductors, they rarely meet the technological demands due to the limitation in their FRQGXFWLYLWLHV W\SLFDOO\ IRU . $J,a -1cm-1 at 150oand . andX%Ua -1cm-1 at 480oand .-CuI~9.0× 10-2 -1cm-1 at 450oC etc.). Therefore there was a genuine need to synthesize / tailor-make solid electrolytes which can have high conductivities. This could be realized by making the composite electrolytes with insulating oxide dispersions. Although the idea of composite electrolytes and thereby enhancing the ionic conductivity was proposed as early as 1973 when Liang [76] reported a 50 time increase for the LiI+Al2O3 system. Since then a large number of systems were developed and investigated for a search of higher and higher conductivities. A reasonably large number of studies on oxide dispersed metallic halides and alkali halides were conducted and reported by various researchers across the world. All these works were essentially targeted to develop electrolytes for the power sources for various applications such as cell phones, pagers, computers, light shutters, smart windows etc. The ever-increasing demand of power sources for modern electronic devices strongly motivate researchers to develop and investigate newer and newer electrolytes, which are the key components of power source / solid state battery. In view of the above requirements, the solid electrolyte preparation and their physical and electrical characterizations were carried out in the present thesis.