Structure and properties of rare-earth-doped glassy systems Original Research Article

Glasses of composition 90Na2B4O7–(10−x) V2O5–xPr6O11 [x=0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mol%] were prepared by the melt-quenching technique. The density (ρ) and molar volume (VM) were obtained and were found to increase with increase in Pr6O11 content. Such behaviour was accounted for by the difference between atomic weight and the atomic radii of the V and Pr ions. The rare-earth ion concentration (N) and ionic radius (rp) were calculated. The differential thermal analysis (DTA) thermographs were used to determine the glass transition temperature (Tg) and crystallization temperature (Tc), for the examined compositions. Both Tg and Tc values were observed to increase with increased Pr6O11 content. The glass-forming ability (GFA) was estimated and it was found to increase with increase in the Pr6O11 content.