ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY OF BENZOYLFERROCENE IN PRESENCE OF ADSORBED VAPORS

Enhancement in the dark conductivity of benzoylferrocene upon adsorption of different organic vapors has been studied with the help of sandwich cell technique. Plot of dark conductivity vs temperature shows conductivity peak(s). The position of the peaks as well as the intensity have been found to depend on the amount as well as the nature of adsorbed vapor. In presence of adsorbed vapors, this material shows a very high value of activation energy (E) and the pre-exponential factor (sigma0) in the usual semiconduction equation [sigma=sigma0 exp (-E/2kT)]. Existing theories for adsorption-induced change in the electrical conductivity of materials are not suitable for explaining the observed results. Possible reasons for the adsorption-induced changes in the conductivity behavior have been discussed.