Physical and spectroscopic properties of multi-component Na2O–PbO–Bi2O3–SiO2 glass ceramics with Cr2O3 as nucleating agent

Abstract

Transparent glass ceramics, synthesized from melt quenching followed by heat treatment, of the composition 10Na2O–30PbO–10Bi2O3–(50−x)SiO2:xCr2O3 (mol%), where 0⩽x⩽0.5, were characterized with XRD, DTA, SEM and EDS. Physical and spectroscopic studies, viz., optical absorption, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), FTIR and Raman were investigated. The characterization of the host glass ceramic has revealed that the formation of a major phase of sodium silicate along with two minor phases such as lead silicate and bismuth oxide. By integrating Cr2O3 to the host glass additional crystal phases viz., NaCrO2, Na2Cr2O7 and Pb(CrO4) which are the complexes of Cr3+ and Cr6+ ions were also developed. As the concentration of nucleating agent is increased, a part of the Cr6+ ions is found to reduce in to Cr3+ ions. Spectroscopic studies have revealed that with an increase in the concentration of Cr2O3 from 0.1 to 0.5mol%, there is a gradual increase in the intensity of vibrational modes of various asymmetric structural units of silicate, bismuthate and chromate in the glass ceramic network at the expense of symmetrical structural units. The analysis of the results of these studies has indicated that in the samples containing higher concentration of Cr2O3, chromium ions exists predominantly in Cr3+ state and occupy the octahedral positions in glass ceramic matrix and such glass ceramic samples are suitable for lasing action.