Effects of vitrification suppression on structure morphology, conductivity and dielectric properties of vanadium phosphate glasses

Vitrification suppression in the (V2O5)(1-x) (P2O5)(x) glasses where x = 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, and 0.25 was controlled by changing the rate of quenching glasses. The structure variations occurring in the glasses were detected by differential thermal analysis and optical microscope. The results implied the separation and growth of V2O5 orthorhombic microcrystal in the samples with x = 0.10 and 0.15 whereas other samples did not illustrate remarkable changes in their microstructure. However, in temperature range between 300 and 473 K a semiconducting behavior for all samples appears during the study of electrical conductivity-temperature dependence. A decrease in conductivity values accompanied with some variations in activation energies by reducing quenching rate was observed. The conductivity results suggested that the conduction occurs by the phonon assisted hopping of a small polaron between V4+ and V5+ states at relatively higher temperature range above theta(D)/2. Whereas at relatively low temperatures the conduction may occur by electron jumping between filled and empty states at Fermi level in the disordered matrix besides polaronic conduction. Reasonable values for the density of localized states, carrier concentration and carrier mobility were estimated and discussed. Also, dielectric constant and dielectric loss were studied as a function of frequency at different temperatures confirming the structure variations in the glass system. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.