The composition and temperature dependences of the thermal and electrical conductivities of three different Cd–Zn alloys have been investigated in the temperature range of 300–650 K. Thermal conductivities of the Cd–Zn alloys have been determined by using the radial heat flow method. It has been found that the thermal conductivity decreases slightly with increasing temperature and the data of thermal conductivity are shifting together to the higher values with increasing Cd composition. In addition, the electrical measurements were determined by using a standard DC four-point probe technique. The resistivity increases linearly and the electrical conductivity decreases exponentially with increasing temperature. The resistivity and electrical conductivity are independent of composition of Cd and Zn. Also, the temperature coefficient of Cd–Zn alloys has been determined, which is independent of composition of Cd and Zn. Finally, Lorenz number has been calculated using the thermal and electrical conductivity values at 373 and 533 K. The results satisfy the Wiedemann–Franz (WF) relation at T<373 K, which suggests the dominant carriers of thermal conduction are mainly electrons. Above this temperature (T>373 K), the WF relation could not hold and the phonon component contribution of thermal conductivity dominates the thermal conduction.

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) photocatalyst films were grown on glass by chemical bath deposition (pH 9.4, 70 C) and then annealed in nitrogen from 423 K to 823 K in steps of 100 K. The XRD crystallite size increases in a sigmoidal manner from 60 nm to 100 nm while the optical band gap energy decreases from 2.42 eV to 2.28 eV. This trend is paralleled by the decreasing Urbach energy, but only up to 623 K, where it increases again. This is the temperature where the Cd effectively surpasses the phase transformation from cubic to hexagonal, and the activation energy for electronic transport drops by a factor of nearly two.

In the present work, the authors have investigated the binary system of (Bi2O3)1–x(Ho2O3)x. For the stabilisation of the tetragonal type solid solution, small amounts of Ho2O3 were doped into the monoclinic Bi2O3 via solid state reactions in the stoichiometric range 0·01≤x≤0·1. The crystal formula of the formed solid solution was determined as Bi(III)4–4xHo(II)4xO6–2xVo(2+2x) (where Vo is the oxide ion vacancy) according to the XRD and SEM microprobe results. In the crystal formula, stoichiometric values of x were 0·04≤x≤0·08, 0·03≤x≤0·09, 0·02≤x≤0·09 and 0·04≤x≤0·09 for annealing temperatures at 750, 800, 805 (quench) and 760°C (quench) respectively. The four probe electrical conductivity measurements showed that the studied system had an oxide ionic type electrical conductivity behaviour, which is increased with increasing dopant concentration and temperature. The obtained solid electrolyte system has an oxygen non-stoichiometry characteristic, and it contains O2– vacancies, which have disordered arrangements in its tetragonal crystal structure. The increase in the amount of Ho2O3 doping and temperature causes an increasing degree of the disordering of oxygen vacancies and a decrease in the activation energy Ea.

No abstract

No abstract