Borotellurite bio-silica glasses doped by erbium nanoparticles: Structural and thermal properties

Authors

• Abdulkarim Muhammad Hamza ^{1, 2, 3}
• Umar Sa’ad Aliyu ^{1, 3}
• Halimah Mohamed Kamari ¹
• Ibrahim Gana Geidam ^{1, 4}
• Raouf El-Mallawany * ⁵
• Nazrin Nazrin ¹
• Muhammad Nasirudeen Baba ³

1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2. National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, Idu, Abuja, Nigeria
3. Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria
4. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Yobe State University Damaturu, Nigeria
5. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Egypt

Abstract

[{[(TeO2)0.8 (B2O3)0.2]0.8 (SiO2)0.2}0.99 (Ag2O)0.01]1−y – (Er2O3 NPs)y, and y=0.01,0.02,0.03,0.04 and 0.05 mole%
were fabricated by the melt quenching technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to verify and confirm the
glasses’ non-crystallinity. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) proved the achievement of silicate of 98.6% quality from rice
husk. Fourier transform infrared d (FTIR) results exposed the basic structural units such as TeO4, TeO3, BO4,
BO3, Si-O-Si, and O-Si-O within the network. The concentration of Er2O3 nanoparticles’ effects on the thermal
properties of ErDBST glasses was duly discussed. From the profiling of the differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC), the glass crystallization temperature Tc, and transition temperature Tg are estimated. Also, the thermal
stability factor, defined as Ts = Tc −Tg, was higher than 100 oC. From room temperature above the Tg for all
the sample glasses, specific heat capacity Cq (≥ 1.4J/gK−1) was obtained. The results showed that the glass
thermal stability and the transition temperature increase with the addition of Er2O3 nanoparticles (NPs). These
suggest that an ErDBST glass exhibit good thermal stability and consequently is a suitable candidate for fiber
drawing.

Keywords

• Thermal Properties
• Erbium Nanoparticles
• Structural properties
• Glasses