An ultrasonic study on ternary xPbO-(45-x)CuO-55B2O3 glasses

A series of xPbO-(45-x)CuO-55B2O3 glasses (5 <= x >= 40 mol %) were prepared by the melt-quenching technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the prepared glasses are found to have amorphous structure. An extensive ultrasonic study has been made to explore the structural role of PbO and CuO in the borate network. Various elastic properties were calculated from the measured data of density and ultrasonic velocity. Ultrasonic velocity and elastic moduli revealed broad humps at about 20 mol % PbO, which are attributed to the borate anomaly. Below 20 mol % PbO, all Pb2+ ions are considered to be entering the borate network as a glass modifier. This results in the transforms the borate network from an open structure to a denser three-dimensional structure due to BO3 -> BO4 conversion. Beyond 20 mol, addition of PbO results in the formation of metaborate, pyroborate, and orthoborate units with NBOs. This weakness the glass structure and decrease both ultrasonic velocity and elastic moduli. The elastic properties were predicted and quantitatively analyzed by taking into account the effect of boron coordination number on the compositional and structural parameters involved in Makishima-Mackenzie's theory, ring deformation model and bond compression model. An excellent agreement between the computed theoretical and experimental elastic moduli, micro-harness and Poisson's ratio was achieved for majority of samples.