A XANES study of the valence state of vanadium in lithium vanadate phosphate glasses

Valence states of vanadium in Li₂O-V₂O₅-P₂O₅ electronic-ionic conducting glasses have been studied by X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The composition dependence of the XANES range of the spectra has been used to estimate relative abundance of the vanadium atoms in V⁴⁺ or V⁵⁺ charge states. This information is important for analysis of electronic transport in these glasses, which occurs via electronic hopping between aliovalent vanadium centers. It was found that in samples with the lowest V₂O₅ contents (10 mole% of V₂O₅) a vast majority of vanadium ions are in V⁴⁺ charge state. At higher V₂O₅ contents the proportion of V⁴⁺ ions decreases at the expense of V⁵⁺ ones, but remains substantial even in glasses with the highest contents of V₂O₅.