Electrical Conductivity Enhancement of V2O5-P2O5-Bi2O3 Glasses by Nanocrystallization

Abstract The structural and electrical properties of the x P 2 O 5 -(40 − x ) Bi 2 O 3 -60V 2 O 5 (0 ≤ x ≤ 20) glass system have been investigated. The samples were prepared by the conventional melt-quenching technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed the amorphous nature of the present glasses. Nanocrystalline grains were found due to the annealing of the glass samples under study. Nanocrystals with an average grain size of 22 nm were implanted in the glass structure and estimated from the XRD patterns of the glass–ceramic samples. DC conductivity of the glass system has been determined in the temperature range 300–500 K. It was found that the general behavior of electrical conductivity was similar for all the glass compositions and found to decrease with increasing phosphate content. The electrical conductivity of the glass–ceramic nanocrystals obtained by annealing at crystallization temperature ( T c ) was much higher than the initial glass. The activation energy (W) was enhanced by annealing and was obtained from plots of temperature-dependent DC conductivity, and found to be 0.23–0.31 eV for glasses and 0.19–0.23 eV for the glass–ceramic nanocrystals.