Effect of quenching rate on electrical conductivity and glass formation of AgI–Ag₂SO₄–TeO₂–B₂O₃ system

Effect of quenching rate on electrical properties and glass formation of 60AgI–40[0.6667Ag₂SO₄–0.3333(0.4TeO₂–0.6B₂O₃)], 20AgI–80[0.6667Ag₂SO₄–0.3333(0.4TeO₂–0.6B₂O₃)] systems was studied. Two systems of samples were prepared by melt quenching method with three different quench media such as air, ice and liquid nitrogen. X-ray diffraction and AC conductivity results show that cooling rate heavily effect the periodic order of atoms and electrical properties of samples respectively. Phase transition, glass transition and crystallization temperatures were determined from Differential scanning calorimetry results. The average AC conductivity of quenched samples increases with increasing the quenching rate. DC conductivity results show that the activation energy decreases with quenching rate. From the impedance spectroscopy, real and imaginary parts of impedances (Z′, Z″), conductivities were obtained and plotted Cole–Cole plots and these plots reveal grain and grain boundary resistance. The dielectric response of the system has been studied with frequency at different temperature, quenching media and activation energy calculated from loss tangent peak shift, which agrees with activation energy obtained from DC conductivity.