AC Conductivity and Dielectric Relaxation Behavior of Sb2S3 Bulk Material

The Sb 2 S 3 bulk material was used for next-generation anode for lithium-ion batteries. Alternative current (AC) conductivity, dielectric properties and electric modulus of Sb 2 S 3 have been investigated. The measurements were carried out in the frequency range from 40 Hz to 5 MHz and temperature range from 293 K to 453 K. The direct current (DC) conductivity, σ DC , shows an activated behavior and the calculated activation energy is 0.50 eV. The AC conductivity, σ AC , was found to increase with the increase of temperature and frequency. The conduction mechanism of σ AC was controlled by the correlated barrier hopping model. The behavior of the dielectric constant, ε ′, and dielectric loss index, ε ′′, reveal that the polarization process of Sb 2 S 3 is dipolar in nature. The behavior of both ε ′ and ε ′′ reveals that bulk Sb 2 S 3 has no ferroelectric or piezoelectric phase transition. The dielectric modulus, M , gives a simple method for evaluating the activation energy of the dielectric relaxation. The calculated activation energy from M is 0.045 eV.