X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy for Probing Non-bridging Oxygen in Silver Ion Conductors and their Relationship to Ionic Conductivity

Abstract

The materials studied in this work are 60AgI-20Ag$_{2}$O-20[0.1M$_{m}$O$_{n}$ + 0.9M’$_{m'}$O$_{n'}$] of the boron oxide rich glass with M$_{m}$O$_{n}$ as WO$_{3}$ and M’$_{m'}$O$_{n'}$ as B$_{2}$O$_{3}$ and the WO$_{3}$ rich glass with M$_{m}$O$_{n}$ as B$_{2}$O$_{3}$ and M’$_{m'}$O$_{n'}$ as WO$_{3}$. XPS has shown that for glasses with the same amount of network modifiers glasses with a higher electrical conductivity have a larger number of (non-bridging oxygen) NBOs. This experiment helped in the deduction of the formation of tetrahedral oxyanions which when share corners with one another could result in the formation of larger channel-like pathways or “open structures†in the glasses through which more silver ions can flow through with ease.