Structural investigation of amorphous Na2O–P2O5–B2O3 correlated with its ionic conductivity

• We have prepared a new borophosphate sodium oxide glass.
• Investigate relation between structure and electrical conductivity of the glass
• Ionic conductivity increase with borate or sodium amount with low activation energy

A series of sodium borophosphate compounds was prepared by twin roller quenching technique. The compounds have the following compositions: (10B2O3–(90 − x) P2O5 − xNa2O) (BPNax) and (10Na2O–(90 − x) P2O5 − xB2O3) (NPBox) with x = 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 mol%. DTA and XRD are used to evidence the crystallization conditions.Change in the local structural environment has been investigated by Raman and by 11B, 31P MAS and QMAS NMR spectroscopies.The large 31P chemical shift of P3 and P2 units with increasing x and the decrease in 11B chemical shift of B4 units with decreasing x indicate that phosphorous is linked to boron through a BO. This feature reveals that the short-range order is amended in the network.Optical absorption was used to determine glassy energy gap Eg, which we used to calculate size polydispersity index and optical index.Electric and dielectric properties were investigated through impedance spectroscopy.For all compositions, variation in the temperature of dc conductivity was found to follow an Arrhenius type relationship. An improvement in the ionic conductivity was reported with the increase of both alkali and borate contents in the glass host.