Vol. 33, Issue 1, pp. 83-89

Abstract

The essence of the dynamic current-voltage characteristics (DCVCs) method is the application of linearly changing voltage to a sample with a plane-parallel electrode system. Previous theoretical considerations have shown that the method may be applied to low thermal conductivity materials, e.g., SiO₂ porous xerogels, in order to investigate ionic transport therein. The low thermal conductivity of SiO₂ xerogels entails a high temperature gradient occurring when DCVCs are measured in vacuum at elevated temperatures. Therefore, it is possible to deduce the sign and mobility of ions responsible for electrical conductivity inside the materials from the characteristic shape of DCVCs.