Nickel ferrite doped lithium substituted zinc and niobo vanadate glasses: thermal, physical, and electrical characterization

Abstract This study reports a comparison of some thermal, physical, and electrical properties of lithium substituted zinc and niobo vanadate glasses doped with nickel ferrite prepared for the electrical application. These glasses were prepared using the melt quenching technique. Density and differential scanning calorimetry were used to derive various physical and thermal properties. Packing density, the concentration of atoms, separations between atoms were compared between doped and undoped glass families. Thermal stability was estimated and compared. It is found that glasses with 20 mol% of Lithium are more stable than the rest. The thermal stability increases significantly by doping Nickel Ferrite from 5 °C to 30 °C in zinc vanadate glasses. Packing density varies with mol% of lithium ions from 0.43 to 0.42 in zinc vanadate glasses and from 0.40 to 0.42 in niobo vanadate glasses. Doping of Nickel ferrite varies the packing density from 0.42 to 0.43 in zinc vanadate glasses whereas it stabilizes the packing density to 0.42 in niobo vanadate glasses. Out of the two families of glasses, zinc vanadate glass doped with nickel ferrite shows better stability and higher packing density compared with others. DC electrical conductivities of the two families of glasses are almost similar and nickel ferrite doping has a little effect on DC electrical conductivity. Thus it is concluded that the nickel ferrite enhances the stability of the glass while maintaining DC electrical conductivity. This observation is important from the point of view of the electrical application of these glasses.