Vidros e vitrocerâmicas de fosfato de nióbio

Abstract

This research consists of preparing vitreous samples based on potassium polyphosphate and niobium oxide doped with luminescent rare earth ions in order to obtain new vitreous compositions with possible photonic applications. The binary system investigated was KPO3-Nb2O5, doped with 0.5% Eu3+. Vitreous samples were obtained in this system with molar concentrations of Nb2O5 ranging from 20, 30, 40, 45 and 50 mol%. The different synthesis conditions such as temperature, time and atmosphere of fusion were determined and optimized. The vitreous samples obtained were characterized by DSC in order to determine the thermal behavior as a function of concentration of Nb2O5 and allowed to identify their characteristics temperatures Tg, Tx, Tc, and Tf. It was possible to notice which the increasing of the Nb2O5 concentration, the glass transition temperature also increases consequently reducing the thermal stability against devitrification. Exclusively, the sample with 50 mol% of Nb2O5 showed two crystallization events being the first one related to the crystalline phase niobium hexagonal oxide and the second one phosphate potassium-niobium crystalline phase (K3Nb6P4O26). From the results of the DSC and X-ray diffraction, it was identified that the sample with 50 mol% Nb2O5 has a volumetric crystallization of the niobium oxide hexagonal phase. By studying the crystallization mechanism was possible to obtain a glass ceramic, co-doped with Er3+ and Yb3+. The luminescence test showed that the glass and glass ceramic samples, codoped with Er3+ and Yb3+, had a significant emission around 1550nm when excited at 980nm. The results from the glass ceramic had a significantly higher emission intensity than those of the glassy sample. The luminescence data of Eu3+ in glasses showed a decreasing symmetry around the Eu3+ and apparent increase in the intensity of certain luminescent properties as the concentration of Nb2O5 increased. The lifetimes also decreases with the increasing of Nb2O5 due to the increase of the index local refraction. Furthermore, deviations between life times obtained by the exponential function fitting and average lifetimes suggest the presence of several distinct sites for the lanthanide ions in these materials.