Silver and Copper Ion Conductors in the Solid State

Materials exhibiting high ionic conductivities in the solid state at room temperature have mainly been found in silver ion conductors based on silver iodide and in copper ion conductors which are based on cuprous halide. Silver iodide and cuprous halide show low ionic conductivities at room temperature, while they are high conductivity solids at relatively higher temperatures. In order to obtain these high conductivity phases at room temperature, the introduction of foreign cations or anions into the lattice of silver iodide and cuprous halide has been attempted. In this paper, the various silver and copper ion high conductivity solids are reviewed and the proposed considerations for the mechanism of the ionic conduction are discussed.