Low temperature synthesis of sodium aluminosilicate glass-NaAlSi3O8

A process for making a sodium-ion conducting glass namely NaAlSi3O8 at a lower temperature has been described in this paper. This glass has been reported to have potential applications in various fields. The glass synthesized at a temperature as low as 773 K was found to be phase-pure with no crystalline impurities and was characterized for its electrical conductivity by AC impedance measurements. The activation energy for electrical conduction was determined to be 58.9 kJ mol−1 and the conductivity at 773 K measured to be 5.2×10−4 Ω−1 cm−1. The conductivity of the glass NaAlSi3O8 was found to be higher when compared to a value of 4.3×10−6 SΩ cm−1 at 553 K for a glass with a higher content of Na2O (composition-Na2O-20 m/o, Al2O3-4 m/o and SiO2-76 m/o) that is expected to exhibit a higher conductivity. It could be concluded that this method of synthesis yields a phase-pure material at lower temperatures when compared to those synthesized by melting the constituent oxides.