Ion conduction in crystalline superionic solids and its applications

Solid State Physics Research Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Shri Shankaracharya Institute of Professional Management & Technology, Raipur 492015, C.G., India

^a e-mail: chandrassi@gmail.com

Received: 16 December 2013
Revised: 19 April 2014
Accepted: 28 April 2014
Published online: 12 June 2014

Abstract

Superionic solids an area of multidisciplinary research activity, incorporates to study the physical, chemical and technological aspects of rapid ion movements within the bulk of the special class of ionic materials. It is an emerging area of materials science, as these solids show tremendous technological scopes to develop wide variety of solid state electrochemical devices such as batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, sensors, electrochromic displays (ECDs), memories, etc. These devices have wide range of applicabilities viz. power sources for IC microchips to transport vehicles, novel sensors for controlling atmospheric pollution, new kind of memories for computers, smart windows/display panels, etc. The field grew with a rapid pace since then, especially with regards to designing new materials as well as to explore their device potentialities. Amongst the known superionic solids, fast Ag⁺ ion conducting crystalline solid electrolytes are attracted special attention due to their relatively higher room temperature conductivity as well as ease of materials handling/synthesis. Ion conduction in these electrolytes is very much interesting part of today. In the present review article, the ion conducting phenomenon and some device applications of crystalline/polycrystalline superionic solid electrolytes have been reviewed in brief. Synthesis and characterization tools have also been discussed in the present review article.