Alpha Silver Iodide Stabilization in Mechanosynthesized AgI-Ag2O-MxOy Systems

The work presents materials formed by means of mechanosynthesis in AgI-Ag2O-MxOy systems supportive to α-AgI stabilization to lower temperatures. Employed ball-milling technique allowed to easily control the synthesis process by variation of milling parameters. Stabilization of α-AgI was investigated in respect to preparation method and origin of AgI grain. As demonstrated, the stable temperature range of superionic phase depends on: silver iodide content, metal oxide chemical composition and synthesis method. We found the largest α-AgI → β-AgI transition temperature decrease for AgI-Ag2O-TiO2 systems. The results demonstrate, that the temperature shift is in a correlation with Ag2O amount; for small amounts of Ag2O the α-AgI was stable to nearly room temperatures.