A new silver ion conductor for battery applications

The silver molybdate system with the mole percentage stoichiometry of 63.75AgI15.54Ag2O20.71MoO3 was found to have the highest room temperature (300 K) electrical conductivity of 0.020 S cm−1 among other samples in the system with a glass-modifier-to-glass-former ratio of 0.75. In an attempt to increase further the electrical conductivity, MoO3 was then partially substituted with ZnO and the system 63.75AgI15.54Ag2O20.71 (0.1ZnO0.9MoO3) was found to have the highest electrical conductivity of 0.032 S cm−1. These samples were prepared by rapidly quenching the melts of the constituent chemicals at liquid nitrogen temperature. The glass transition temperature Tg of the silver zinc molybdate phase is 360 K. Wagnerʹs polarization technique showed that the transference number for the silver zinc molybdate glass is greater than 0.9. The glass was used to fabricate several electrochemical cells (Ag + Electrolyte)/Electrolyte/(X + C + Electrolyte) with different cathode active materials XI2, KI3, RbI3 and CsI3. The open circuit voltage and internal resistance of each cell were measured and all cells were finally discharged at a load current of 50 μA.