Electrical Properties

Compositional dependence

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE

 Basic of Electrical Conduction

✔ Most oxide glasses, including silicates, borates, germanates, and most

phosphates, are ionic conductors.
✔ While chalcogenide and some phosphate glasses are electronic conductors.
✔ Charge carrier- ions (ionic conductivity)
- electron (electronic conductivity)
✔ glass is an electrical insulator— varies with viscosity & viscosity is a function
of temperature.
✔ Electrical conductivity of glass increases rapidly with temperature.

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE

Compositional Effects
• Influencing factors

✔ Mobility of the current carrier.

✔ Concentration of carriers.

• N.B- univalent alkali ions have the greatest mobility through the
glassy structure

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE

Sodium silicate glasses

✔ Increases more rapidly with

increasing soda concentration.

✔ For other alkali silicate

glasses, increases in the order
Na > K > Rb > Cs.

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE

Mixed-alkali effect
(for sodium-potassium silicate glasses)
✔ Glasses containing two or
more alkali oxides display the
mixed-alkali effect.
e.g. XNa20. (1-X)K20. 3 Si02
✔ Intermediate composition
(X~0.5) exhibit electrical
conductivities several orders
of magnitude lower than do
the end compositions (X=0
and 1)
✔ Although the total alkali oxide
content of these glasses is
constant

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE

Effect of alkaline earth oxide to glass

✔ Addition of an alkaline earth

oxide to a glass containing alkali
ions decreases the electrical
conductivity
✔ Blocking effect of the immobile
divalent ion which occupies
interstices.
✔ Which can therefore no longer
be used for alkali migration.

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE

Alkali aluminosilicate and galliosilicate glasses

✔ Initially decreases as the

intermediate oxide is added to the
glass
✔ Passes through a minimum at an
intermediate to alkali ratio between
0.2 and 0.6
✔ Rises to a maximum at a ratio of 1.0
to 1.1
✔ It decreases steadily until the glass
formation limitis reached

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE

 Alkali germanate glass
✔ Behaves differently from that of the
alkali silicate and borate glasses.

✔ Li & Na - increases very rapidly.

✔ K, Rb, Cs - initial large increase in

conductivity is not observed.
---conductivity initially only increases
by a small amount, after which it
decreases and passes through a small
minimum at 5-12 mol% alkali oxide,
and then increases to values near those
of glasses containing lithium or sodium
oxide.

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE

Anionic Conductivity
• Although the electrical conductivity of most oxide glasses is due to cation
migration
• Glasses containing halides is due to anion migration.
• e.g lead halosilicate glasses (containing less than 50 mol% silica)
• F is much more mobile than the other halide ions, with conductivity
increasing in the order I < Br < C1 < F for glasses containing the same
concentrations of lead halide.
• Shows mixed-halide eflect, or the mixed-anion effect- contain two different
halides
• Another e.g. lead fluoroborate, fluorogermanate, Calcium fluoroaluminate,
Fluorophosphate, heavy metal fluoride glasses.

Shamima Akhter Urmi, Lecturer, GCE