Structural characterization of superionic sodium tungsten phosphate glasses by high-Q neutron diffraction

Superionic phosphate glass and crystalline samples are technologically important materials for applications as electrolytes and cathodes in energy storage devices such as supercapacitors and rechargeable batteries. Sodium tungsten phosphate system forms glassy phase samples by melt quenching technique over a wide composition range. WO3 is a conditional glass former and its incorporation in the phosphate network produces mixed short-range structural units with enhanced disorder that promotes ionic transport. Tungsten phosphate glasses contatining 2 to 20 mol %Na2O show hiigh ionic conductivity of ~ 15 mScm-1 at room temperature. The proposal aims to perform short range structural characterization of sodium tungsten phosphate glasses by high-Q neutron experiments and correlate the changes in the glass structure with its ionic conductivity as a function of Na2O concentration.