Electrical conductivity of silver halide - cadmium halide systems

TL;DR

This paper explains the observed maximum in electrical conductivity of AgX-CdX2 solid solutions around 20 mol% CdX2 using a model based on crystal compressibility, providing conditions for predicting such maxima.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative model to explain conductivity maxima in AgX-CdX2 systems and predicts when these maxima occur based on material properties.

Findings

Maximum conductivity occurs at ~20 mol% CdX2.

A model predicts conditions for conductivity maxima.

Explicit criteria for maxima occurrence are provided.

Abstract

Very recent measurements of the electrical conductivity of solid systems AgX - CdX$_2$ (where X$\equiv$Cl,Br) that form large areas of solid solutions, have shown that maximum conductivity occurs for a concentration around 20 mol\% of the cadmium halide. Here, we suggest a quantitative explanation of this phenomenon based on a model that was suggested (J. Appl. Phys. 103, 083552, (2008)) for estimating the compressibility of multiphased mixed crystals. In addition, explicit conditions are obtained which predict when such a conductivity maximum is expected to occur.