Structural and optical properties of cerium oxide doped barium bismuth borate glasses

Silvia Barbi,Consuelo Mugoni,Monia Montorsi,Mario Affatigato,Corrado Gatto,Cristina Siligardi

doi:10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2018.07.033

Abstract

This study focuses on the characterization of heavy metal oxide glasses containing CeO2 as dopant with the aim to enhance its density, as many optical applications of glasses (eg: heavy particles measurement in high energy physics) are heavily dependent on the density of the glass itself. Different concentrations of CeO2 were added to a barium bismuth borate base glass and the relative structural and optical properties were studied. The structure of the obtained material was analysed by means of density measurement, molar volume calculation, X-Ray diffraction, thermal analysis and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that CeO2 promotes the formation of a crystalline phase and improves the density of the base glass. Optical properties were studied, such as transmittance and luminescence, and the obtained results suggest that the crystalline formation scatters light transmittance through the sample, preventing luminescent emission. Further improvements in glass formulation have been suggested in order to enhance its optical properties together with its density.

Highlights

The interest in CeO2 doped materials is continuously increasing and nowadays these materials are employed in advanced applications such as solid oxide fuel cells, dielectrics, biosensors and scintillators [1]
The aim of this work is to investigate the correlations between structural changes induced by increasing amounts of CeO2 added to the 20BaO-(20-x)Bi2O3-60B2O3-xCeO2 glass system with the final properties of the materials especially aiming at increased density which is a fundamental requirement for applications in high energy physics
One of the first interesting findings is that the density of this kind of glasses can be enhanced with small quantity of CeO2 as dopant

Summary

Introduction

The interest in CeO2 doped materials is continuously increasing and nowadays these materials are employed in advanced applications such as solid oxide fuel cells, dielectrics, biosensors and scintillators [1]. One of the most interesting aspects of cerium concerns the two valence states, Ce3+ and Ce4+, that occur in the glass network as a function of the type of host material as well as on the specific synthesis condition [2]. These oxidations states are responsible of a lot of final properties shown by the glass materials and its applications span different fields of interest. It has been demonstrated that presence of both Ce4+ and Ce3+ in the same glass composition results into enhanced luminescence properties: in borosilicate glasses Ce4+ acts as a quenching centre for the Ce3+

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