Chemical durability and structure of Al2O3–Ag2O–P2O5 glasses

Glasses in the xAl2O3·(40 − x)Ag2O·60P2O5 system were prepared using melt quenching rout, where x varies between 0 and 20 mol%. Scanning electron microscopy indicates that the addition of Al2O3 has changed the morphology of the samples under investigation. The density of the glasses and the corresponding molar volume are both decreased linearly with increasing content of Al2O3. The dissolution rates (Dr) of the studied glasses were determined using weight loss method. Dr has showed a strong decreasing trend (from ~ 10−4 to ~ 10−9) upon increasing Al2O3 content. By increasing the concentration of Al2O3, the chemical durability of the investigated glasses is increased. Decreasing the weight loss was interpreted in terms of increasing concentration of P–O–Al bonds in the glasses investigated. The activation energy for ionic conduction showed an increasing behavior with increasing Al2O3 contents.