Solid State Ionics: from Michael Faraday to green energy—the European dimension

Abstract

Solid State Ionics has its roots essentially in Europe. First foundations were laid by Michael Faraday who discovered the solid electrolytes Ag2S and PbF2 and coined terms such as cation and anion, electrode and electrolyte. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the main lines of development toward Solid State Ionics, pursued in Europe, concerned the linear laws of transport, structural analysis, disorder and entropy and the electrochemical storage and conversion of energy. Fundamental contributions were then made by Walther Nernst, who derived the Nernst equation and detected ionic conduction in heterovalently doped zirconia, which he utilized in his Nernst lamp. Another big step forward was the discovery of the extraordinary properties of alpha silver iodide in 1914. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the concept of point defects was established by Yakov Il'ich Frenkel, Walter Schottky and Carl Wagner, including the development of point-defect thermodynamics by Schottky and Wagner. In terms of point defects, ionic (and electronic) transport in ionic crystals became easy to visualize. In an ‘evolving scheme of materials science’, point disorder precedes structural disorder, as displayed by the AgI-type solid electrolytes (and other ionic crystals), by ion-conducting glasses, polymer electrolytes and nano-composites. During the last few decades, much progress has been made in finding and investigating novel solid electrolytes and in using them for the preservation of our environment, in particular in advanced solid state battery systems, fuel cells and sensors. Since 1972, international conferences have been held in the field of Solid State Ionics, and the International Society for Solid State Ionics was founded at one of them, held at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in 1987.

Fast direct synthesis and compaction of phase pure thermoelectric ZnSb

“…18,[45][46][47][48] Future studies of all the thermoelectric properties for the different phases will hopefully give insight that can aid in understanding the differences.…”

Biosilica from sea water diatoms algae—electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study

“…a double electrochemical layer in the metal/bulk film interface, within particles in the bulk film and the metal/electrolyte interface. This is the inverse angular frequency at the maximum of the conductivity arc [13]. The average time of τ tot is 2.67 10 −3 s. It suggests that charge transfer is fast and might be dependent on coupled lithium ion and electron processes in the studied system.…”

Maxwell displacement current and nature of Jonsher’s “universal” dynamic response in nanoionics

“…Jonsher [34], the frequency dependence of a linear electric response attracts much attention and is considered until now as fundamental [35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. A new field of investigations appeared.…”

“…A new field of investigations appeared. Its subject is the dynamics of ion transport in solids [2,4,35]. The discovered power law of the real part of frequency dependent conductivity Re*()  n (n < 1)…”