Thermal, FTIR and UV spectral studies on tellurite glasses doped with cerium oxide

Abstract

Tellurium oxide-based glasses in the form of 75TeO2 – 10ZnO – (10-x)Nb2O5 – 5Li2O – xCe2O3; where x = 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5mol%, were prepared by using the melt-quenching method. X-Ray Diffraction pattern (XRD) detected the amorphous nature of all the prepared glasses. Physical properties like density (ρ), molar volume (Vm), and oxygen packing density (OPD), have been determined and calculated. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) studies showed that the glass network contains TeO4, TeO3+1/TeO3, ZnO4, and NbO6 as structural units. The glass transition temperature (Tg), onset of glass crystallization temperature (Tx), crystallization temperature (Tc), and melting temperature (Tm) have been determined by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The optical band gap (Eopt), the Urbach energy (∆E), and the cut off wavelength (λc) were determined through the optical absorption data.