Customized physical and structural features of phosphate-based glass-ceramics: role of Ag nanoparticles and Ho3+ impurities

Abstract

The effects of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) embedment on the physical and structural characteristics of the holmium ions (Ho3+) activated phosphate-based glass-ceramics were assessed. Two series of such glass-ceramics were prepared using the melt-quenching and characterized. In the first series, the Ag NPs were nucleated from the incorporated AgCl via the redox process. In the second series, the pure Ag nanopowder was directly added. The overall properties of these glass-ceramics were strongly sensitive to the cooling procedure and NPs addition strategies, leading to different density and refractive index modifications in the two series. The recorded O1s XPS peaks were exploited to determine the bridging to non-bridging oxygen ratios in the studied glass-ceramics network that enabled to unfold the differences in the observed inferences. A compelling correlation among various attributes in the achieved glass-ceramics was established. Briefly, the overall traits of the proposed glass-ceramics were tailored by regulating the preparation conditions.