Thermal properties, FTIR characteristics and physical parameters of Europium oxide doped phosphate glasses

Abstract

Europium oxide doped lithium zinc phosphate glasses with formula xEu2O3-(15-x) Li2O-45ZnO-40P2O5 (where x= 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 mol%) are synthesized by conventional melt quenching method. Using DTA results, the glass transition, crystallization and melting temperatures are determined and from these values the thermal characteristics like thermal stability (TS), glass forming ability (K), thermal stability parameter (S) and reduced glass transition temperature (Trg) of all the prepared samples are calculated. Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR) was used to examine the structural properties of the glasses. It showed the presence of stretching vibration modes of P-O-P, bending modes of P-O in PO4, stretching and bending vibrations of OH groups. Physical parameters like packing density (Vp), average phosphorus-phosphorus distance (dP-P), oxygen packing density (OPD), number of bonds per unit volume (nb), coordination number (m), molar refraction (Rm), dielectric constant (ɛ), reflection loss (RL), metallization criterion (M), electronic polarizability of the oxide ions (αO2-), electric susceptibility (χ), electronegativity (χ e), optical basicity (Λ) and interaction parameter (A) of all the glass samples are calculated using appropriate formulae.