CHEMICAL DURABILITY AND THERMAL STABILITY OF Er3+-DOPED ZINC TELLURITE GLASS CONTAINING SILVER NANOPARTICLES

Improving the chemical durability and thermal stability of rare-earth doped glasses is a challenging issue. Glasses with composition (80-x) TeO2-20ZnO-1Er(2)O(3)-xAgCl (x=0, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mol%) were prepared by melt quenching method. The chemical durability and water resistivity of those glasses are investigated by measuring the weight of samples after and before weathering by water and ammonium hydroxide. Variation of surface morphology is observed by AFM, SEM and EDX techniques. The weight loss is explained in terms of dissolution of glass in the immersed solution. Increments in the weight of samples are attributed to clustering and deposition of elements on the glass surface. The weight loss over twenty one days showed that addition of AgCl decreases the resistivity against water and ammonium solution. The introduction of AgCl found to increase the thermal stability and resulted in stronger glass networks. Also, the fragility is improved by incorporation of AgCl as revealed by the broadening of glass transition width. Our observation may be useful for the fabrication of nanophotonic devices in different environments.