Polaronic Conductivity in Iron Phosphate Glasses Containing B2O3

We report on the electrical properties of glasses with nominal composition xB2O3–(100 − x)[40Fe2O3–60P2O5],x = 2–20, mol.%. The conduction transport in these glasses is polaronic and shows a strong dependence on Fe2O3 content and polaron number density. The changes in DC conductivity are found not to be directly related to B2O3, however structural changes induced by its addition impact frequency-dependent conductivity. All glasses obey Summerfield and Sidebottom procedures of scaling conductivity spectra indicating that the polaronic mechanism does not change with temperature. An attempt to produce a super-master curve revealed that shape of the conductivity dispersion is the same for glasses with up to 15.0 mol.% B2O3 but differs for glass with the highest B2O3 content. This result could be related to the presence of borate units in the glass network. Moreover, the spatial extent of localized polaron motions increases with the decrease of polaron number density, however, this increase shows a larger slope than for previously reported iron phosphate glasses most probably due to the influence of B2O3 on glass structure and formation of polarons. While Summerfield scaling procedure fails, Sidebottom scaling yields a super-master curve, which indicates that polaronic hopping lengths also change with changing polaron number density in these glasses.

Thermal properties of Na2O–P2O5–Fe2O3 polyphosphate glasses

Iron phosphate glasses are materials that can have many applications like durable matrixes in waste immobilization techniques, biomaterials, optoelectronic devices, etc. Their possible usage is related to their glass network and thermal properties. The influence of Na2O content on thermal properties and crystallization ability of iron phosphate glass of base composition 30 Fe2O3–70 P2O5 mol% were studied. Increasing the content of Na2O causes a decrease in transformation temperature and increase in ΔCp. Characteristic temperatures, thermal stability and crystallizing phases were determined. Increasing content of sodium causes depolarization of iron phosphate glass network which causes a continuous change in ΔCp and glass transformation temperature. Discontinuous change in some glass properties suggests structure rebuilding about 30 mol% of Na2O.