Variable charge transport mechanism

Semiconducting Ceramics. Most oxide semiconductors are either doped to create extrinsic defects or annealed under conditions in which they become non stoichiometric. Although the resulting defects have been carefully studied in many oxides, the precise nature of the conduction is not well understood. Mobihty values associated with the various charge transport mechanisms are often low and difficult to measure. In consequence, reported conductivities are often at variance because the effects of variable impurities and past thermal history may overwhelm the dopant effects. 

The charge transport properties in the direction of free-carrier motion in a restricted-dimensional system have inportant consequences for the magnetotransport effects. This is treated in Sect. 5.3.4. For disordered systems, when the Mott variable-range hopping mechanism [3.58] dominates the conductivity, the temperature scaling law depends on the dimensionality the 3-D conductivity <73-0 varies with temperature following the law log (T3.D a T, whereas the 2-D conductivity varies as log (T2-D The transition from 3-D to 2-D behav-... 

The effects of the catalytic reaction on the CV curve are related to the value of dimensionless parameter A in whose expressions appear variables related to the chemical reaction and also to the geometry of the diffusion field. For small values of A, the surface concentration of species C is scarcely affected by the catalysis for any value of the electrode radius, such that r)7,> —> c c and the current becomes identical to that corresponding to a pseudo-first-order catalytic mechanism (see Eq. (6.203)). In contrast, for high values of A and f —> 1 (cathodic limit), the rate-determining step of the process is the mass transport. In this case, the catalytic limiting current coincides with that obtained for a simple charge transfer process. 

We have given perhaps undue attention to the mobile carrier mechanism because at one time it was assumed that the Na and K transport in excitable cell membranes occurred precisely via this mechanism. In 1965, Chandler and Meves undertook an experiment to assess the aforementioned specifics of the high-frequency conductance. A nerve fiber was placed in a solution containing no Na or K ions. This precluded direct current through the membrane. However, if there had been any mobile charged carriers in the membrane, the authors would have detected current on application of a variable field. The authors did not observe a detectable current under these conditions, from which it could be deduced that the transport systems of excitable membrane are structured as ion channels whose conductance is controlled by electric field. 

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