Effects of pressure and electric field on the charge transport mechanisms in the silver-modified-zeolite porous microstructure

• Transport mechanisms for Ag modified zeolite were studied for the first time.
• The influence of pressure and electric field on dc conductivity was described.
• The ionic and electronic transports were found to affect the conduction mechanisms.

The electrical properties and charge transport mechanisms for nanoporous natural zeolite of clinoptilolite and its silver modified form were studied for the first time in a wide gas pressure range (4–760 Torr) and electric field strength (50–350 kV/cm) at room temperature using two different cell configurations. One of the used cells contained a gas discharge gap, which allowed investigating the electronic conduction route in zeolite cathodes (ZC) as well. The influence of pressure, electric field and cell types on the dc conductivity was described. The resistivity decreased intensely from 1010 to 106 Ω cm at 435 V upon increasing the pressure from 4 to 760 (AP) Torr, which can be due to the ionic mobility of ZC. The physical role of Ag metal nanoparticles in the generation and maintenance of cold plasma stabilization over the surface of ZCs was investigated. For this purpose, the effect of pressure and electric field on the charge transport mechanisms in the silver-modified-zeolite porous microstructure and physicochemical interaction of the discharge plasma with the different Ag loadings as was studied. The electric field and pressure was found to be basic parameters determining the characteristics of the discharge plasma and charge transport mechanisms. When high voltages were applied to the cell with gas discharge gap, the ionization phenomena was observed to increase, which indicated that the electronic conduction is most likely to contribute to the dc conduction in the zeolite. Therefore, the ionic and electronic transport mechanisms were both found to influence the transport mechanisms.

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