Martin 9420651 New Heavy alkali and light alkaline earth thioborate glasses will be prepared and characterized for the first time. While having some similarity to the analogous oxide borates, these glasses have striking differences, such as the formation rate of six to eight tetrahedral borons per every added sulfide anion compared to two tetrahedral borons for the alkali oxide borate glasses. This research will explore the relationship between nanometer length scale effects of intermediate-range order and physical properties of glass. Raman, Nuclear Quad Resonance, and neutron scattering spectroscopies will be used to probe longer range structures. Nanosecond time scale measurements (Giga hertz frequencies) of the conductivity and of nuclear spin lattice relaxation will be used to probe the relationship between these properties that arise from cationhopping dynamics in these fast ion conducting glasses. An attempt will be made to develop a new class of chemically robust fast ion conducting glasses that push the suitability envelope for these materials in elechochemical applications. The proposed research seeks to probe deeper into the structure of glass, long length scales, and farther back into the dynamics of cation motion, shorter time scales, than ever before. These chaecognide glasses provide a nearly perfect template upon which these experiments can be staged. %%% New heavy alkali and light alkaline earth thioborate glasses will be prepared and characterized. The research will be aimed to explore the relationship between nanometer length scale effects and physical properties of glasses. ***
