Structure-properties changes in ZnO-PbO-GeO2 glasses

We have studied the structure of ZnO-PbO-GeO2 glasses by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and showed that the analysis of the vibrational spectra can lead to a quantitative description of the network structure in terms of the fraction of the local germanate polyhedra. The presence of GeO4, GeO6 and GeO4 with NBOs units was evidenced in the studied glass network. The initial additions of ZnO would introduce modifier Zn2+ ions at the expense of the former PbO4 units. With increasing ZnO content, ZnO4 tetrahedra would mainly replace modifier PbO. The decrease in density when introducing ZnO at the expense of PbO content is not only due to the vast difference in molecular mass between PbO and ZnO, but also due to the formation of Q(2) and Q(3) units. The glass network of the investigated glasses posseses a more covalent character upon replacing ZnO for PbO. This is the reason for increasing the microhardness and the glass transformation temperature of the glasses investigated with increasing zinc oxide content. The change in the conductivity at certain temperature not only attributed to the change in the covalency of the glass matrix upon replacing PbO by ZnO but also due to a change in the strain energy because of the change in V-m.