Characterisation of porous Vycor® 7930–AgI composites synthesised by electro-crystallisation

The paper reports on the elaboration and characterisation of “porous glass–ionic conductor” composite. The Vycor® 7930, a porous glass from Corning, was used as a bulk porous insulating matrix where silver iodide (β-AgI) was inserted to obtain a Vycor®–AgI composite. The precipitation of silver iodide (β-AgI) inside the pores of Vycor® glass was obtained by electro-crystallisation with an applied voltage of 1.5 V using silver nitrate and sodium iodide solutions as precursors. The obtained “silver iodide–Vycor®” composites were characterised by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy. The influence of the electro-crystallisation time on the AgI precipitate microstructure was studied.