Study of Temperature Dependence of Electrode-Glass Ceramic Interface Using Impedance Spectroscopy

The electrical behavior of strontium titanate borosilicate glass ceramics (SrO.TiO2- 2SiO(2).B2O3) with additives K2O, La2O3, CoO and Nb2O5 was studied by using Impedance Spectroscopy as a function of temperature and composition. An equivalent circuit model having three parallel RC's connected in series with a capacitor C-4 could represent the data well. By comparing the complex modulus plots with simulated ones and looking at the values of the time constants these RC's were attributed to represent crystalline, glassy and glass-crystal interface regions of the glass- ceramic whereas C-4 represented the glass-ceramic sample and contact electrode interface. When the glass ceramic sample contained only SrTiO3 crystalline phase and the remaining glassy matrix, the interface capacitance showed an Arrhenius type of nature with an activation energy (0.11 +/- 0.04) eV and when the glass- ceramic sample contained number of crystalline phases no clear cut trend appeared. These findings are useful in selecting suitable electrodes for applications as well as in deciding upon experimental techniques for measurement of dielectric constants of materials.