A novel microwave method is described for the preparation of electrode materials required for lithium batteries. The method is simple, fast and carried out in most cases with the same starting material as in conventional methods. Good crystallinity has been noted and lower temperatures of reaction has been inferred in cases where low temperature products have been identified

Si₃N₄–SiC composites have been microwave sintered using 𝛽-Si₃N₄ and 𝛽-SiC as starting materials. Si₃N₄ rich compositions (95 and 90 vol.% Si₃N₄) have been sintered above 96% of theoretical density without using any sintering additives in 40 min. A monotonic decrease in relative density is observed with increase in SiC proportion in the composite. Decrease in relative density has manifested in the reduction of fracture toughness and microhardness values of the composite with increase in SiC content although the good sintering of matrix Si₃N₄ limits the decrease of fracture toughness. Highest value of fracture toughness of 6.1 MPa m^1/2 is observed in 10 vol.% SiC composite. Crack propagation appears to be transgranular in the Si₃N₄ matrix and the toughening of the composites is through crack deflection around hard SiC particles in addition to its debonding from the matrix.

Na⁺ ion conductivity has been studied in SnO.NaPO₃ glasses, which have been prepared over a wide range of compositions using a microwave melting technique. D.c. activation barriers seem to reflect the structural changes in system. A.c. conductivity analysis has revealed that while the power law exponent, 𝑠, seem to bear correlation to the structural changes, the exponent 𝛽 of the stretched exponential function describing the dielectric relaxation is largely insensitive to the structure. Possible importance of the correlation of transport property to the variation of available non-bridging oxygen (NBO) atoms in the structure is discussed.

Lithium ion conductivity has been investigated in a boro-tellurite glass system, LiCl.LiBO$_{2}\cdot$TeO₂.In the absence of LiCl, the conductivity increases with increasing non-bridging oxygen (NBO) concentration. LiCl addition has little influence on total conductivity although the observed barriers are low. Formation of LiCl clusters appears evident. In the a.c. conductivity and dielectric studies, it is observed that the conductivity mechanism remains the same in all compositions and at all temperatures. A suggestion is made that Li⁺ ion transport may be driven by bridging oxygen $\leftrightarrow$ non-bridging oxygen (BO $\leftrightarrow$ NBO) switching, which is why the two different types of Li⁺ ions in the clusters and in the neighbourhood of NBOs, do not manifest in the conductivity studies.

A microwave assisted solvothermal method is described for rapid preparation of nano-oxides. This method is based on exploiting differential dielectric constants to induce preferred heating and decomposition of the oxide precursors in the presence of suitable capping agents. This strategic approach has been used to prepare nanopowders of MgO, NiO, ZnO, Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃ and ZrO₂.

Structural and electrochemical aspects of vanadium oxide films recently reported from ICMCB/ENSCPB have been examined using appropriate structural models. It is shown that amorphous films are nonstoichiometric as a result of pre-deposition decomposition of V₂O₅. It is proposed that the structure of amorphous films corresponds to a nanotextured mosaic of V₂O₅ and V₂O₄ regions. Lithium intercalation into these regions is considered to occur sequentially and determined by differences in group electronegativities. Open circuit voltages (OCV) have been calculated for various stoichiometric levels of lithiation using available thermodynamic data with approximate corrections. Sequestration of lithium observed in experiments is shown to be an interfacial phenomenon. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic observation of the formation of V³⁺ even when V⁵⁺ has not been completely reduced to V⁴⁺ is shown to be entirely consistent with the proposed structural model and a consequence of initial oxygen nonstoichiometry. Based on the structural data available on V₂O₅ and its lithiated products, it is argued that the geometry of VO_𝑛 polyhedron changes from square pyramid to trigonal bipyramid to octahedron with increase of lithiation. A molecular orbital based energy band diagram is presented which suggests that lithiated vanadium oxides, Li_𝑥 V₂O₅, become metallic for high values of 𝑥.

Nanopowders of TiO₂ has been prepared using a microwave irradiation-assisted route, starting from a metalorganic precursor, bis(ethyl-3-oxo-butanoato)oxotitanium (IV), [TiO(etob)₂]₂. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used as a capping agent. The as-prepared amorphous powders crystallize into anatase phase, when calcined. At higher calcination temperature, the rutile phase is observed to form in increasing quantities as the calcination temperature is raised. The structural and physicochemical properties were measured using XRD, FT–IR, SEM, TEM and thermal analyses. The mechanisms of formation of nano-TiO₂ from the metal–organic precursor and the irreversible phase transformation of nano TiO₂ from anatase to rutile structure at higher temperatures have been discussed. It is suggested that a unique step of initiation of transformation takes place in Ti_1/2O layers in anatase which propagates. This mechanism rationalizes several key observations associated with the anatase–rutile transformation.

Mechanism of ion transport in glasses continues to be incompletely understood. Several of the theoretical models in vogue fail to rationalize conductivity behaviour when d.c. and a.c. measurements are considered together. While they seem to involve the presence of at least two components in d.c. activation energy, experiments fail to reveal that feature. Further, only minor importance is given to the influence of structure of the glass on the ionic conductivity behaviour. In this paper, we have examined several general aspects of ion transport taking the example of ionically conducting glasses in pseudo binary, 𝑦Na₂B₄O₇.(1−𝑦) M$_{a}$O$_{b}$ (with 𝑦 = 0.25–0.79 and M$_{a}$O$_{b}$ = PbO, TeO₂ and Bi₂O₃) system of glasses which have also been recently characterized. Ion transport in them has been studied in detail. We have proposed that non-bridging oxygen (NBO) participation is crucial to the understanding of the observed conductivity behaviour. NBO–BO switching is projected as the first important step in ion transport and alkali ion jump is a subsequent event with a characteristically lower barrier which is, therefore, not observed in any study. All important observations in d.c. and a.c. transport in glasses are found consistent with this model.