Glass formation and FTIR spectra of CeO2-doped 36Fe2O3–10B2O3–54P2O5 glasses

• The IBP glass containing 18 mol% of CeO2 has immiscible solid in appearance.
• Monazite CePO4 appears in IBP glass with CeO2 content more than 9 mol%.
• The IBP glass with 18 mol% CeO2 content contains both CePO4 and FePO4 crystal.
• xCeO2–(100 − x)(36Fe2O3–10B2O3–54P2O5) glass forming region is from x = 0 to x = 9, mol%.
• The IBP glass with up to 15 mol% CeO2 not produces fundamental glass networks' change.

Glasses with compositions xCeO2–(100 − x)(36Fe2O3–10B2O3–54P2O5) (x = 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18, mol%) are prepared by conventional melt quench method. Glass formation and structure of CeO2-doped iron borophosphate glass have been investigated by using X-ray diffraction and FTIR spectroscopy. The results show that the samples doped with less than 9 mol% CeO2 are fully amorphous, crystallization occurs when the content of CeO2 reaches 9 mol%, and the main crystal phase, monazite CePO4, is embedded in an amorphous matrix. When doped CeO2 reaches 18 mol%, another crystal phase, FePO4, also crystallizes from the structure of the formed glass matrix, and immiscible solid formed in its appearance. IR data indicate that the studied glass structure consists predominantly of orthophosphate (Q0) units, pyrophosphate (Q1) units and [BO4] units. The glass transition temperature (Tg) is improved by doping with CeO2, which suggests that Ce acts a role of strengthening the cross-links between the borophosphate chains of the glasses.