Disappearance of the Superionic Phase Transition in Sub-5 nm Silver Iodide Nanoparticles

Bulk silver iodide (AgI) is known to show a phase transition from the poorly conducting β/γ-phases into the superionic conducting α-phase at 147 °C. Its transition temperature decreases with decreasing the size of AgI, and the α-phase exists stably at 37 °C in AgI nanoparticles with a diameter of 6.3 nm. In this Letter, we investigated the atomic configuration, the phase transition behavior, and the ionic conductivity of AgI nanoparticles with a diameter of 3.0 nm. The combination of pair distribution function (PDF) analysis and reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) modeling based on high-energy X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed for the first time that they formed the β/γ-phases with atomic disorder. The results of extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and AC impedance spectroscopy demonstrated that they did not exhibit the superionic phase transition and their ionic conductivity was lower than that of crystalline AgI. The disappearance of the superionic phase transition and low ionic conductivity in the very small AgI nanoparticles originates from their small size and disordered structure.