Ionic diffusion in superionic-conductor melts

The self-diffusion coefficients D + and D - of the two ionic species in molten AgI, CuCl, CuBr and CuI are evaluated and contrasted with those calculated for molten NaCl. The evaluation adopts a simple model for liquid-state dynamics, earlier proposed by Zwanzig (1983) to justify the Stokes-Einstein formula for monatomic fluids, and by suitable approximations relates the self-diffusion coefficients to pair potentials and to the pair structure of the melt. The results offer an interpretation for molecular dynamics data showing that, whereas for a 'normal' system such as NaCl the ratio D + /D - in the melt is of order unity, a sizeable difference between D + and D - persists in salts melting from a fast-cation conducting solid. This difference is explicitly related to liquid structure through differences in the structural backscattering of cations by cations and of halogens by halogens. The calculated magnitudes of D + /D - are quite satisfactory, while the absolute magnitudes of D + and D - are in good agreement with the data only for those salts (AgI, CuBr and NaCl) in which the masses of the two ionic species are not greatly different.