Keywords: Tellurite glass; Nb2O5; FTIR; SEM-EDX; spectroscopic

Abstract

Ternary TeO2-ZnO-Nb2O5 glass has been reported to have exceptional structural and elastic properties. The ternary samples of (85-x)TeO2 - 15ZnO - (x)Nb2O5 (x = 0, 2, 5, 8, 10 mol %) glass system are studied. The effect of Nb2O5 on the combination spectroscopic studies (FTIR and SEM-EDX) of the glass were investigated. XRD measurements were confirmed that all samples prepared are amorphous in nature. The FTIR observations show that TeO3 trigonal pyramid (tp) to TeO4 trigonal bipyramid (tbp) group conversion in the TeO2-ZnO base glass was aided by the steadily rising Nb2O5 content. The SEM examination results show the flat surface without grain boundaries and dominancy of large particle grain size. The EDX mapping results confirm the increment of Nb element’s weight percentage as increase in Nb2O5 compound. The density and oxygen packing density increases, while the molar volume of the glass samples decreases as the content of Nb2O5 increases. This is suggested to indicate that glass structure is compact, and the glass network become rigid. The Nb2O5 plays important functions in structuring and forming the glass structure, thus this study is inferred to contribute to the valuable information on the spectroscopic properties of this glass system.