Compositional dependence of properties of Gd2O3–SiO2–B2O3 glasses with high Gd2O3 concentration

• Glasses with compositions (100 − 2x) B2O3 − x [Gd2O3–SiO2] (x = 27.5–37.5 mol%) were prepared.
• The glasses were characterized by density measurement, DSC, UV–visible spectroscopy, etc.
• The compositional dependence of property parameters on Gd2O3 content was discussed.
• The properties of glasses comply well with their structure.

Glasses with compositions (100 − 2x) B2O3 − x [Gd2O3–SiO2] (x = 27.5, 30.0, 32.5, 35.0, 37.5 mol%) have been prepared by conventional melt quenching method. They were characterized by density, hardness, thermal expansion coefficient and chemical durability measurements, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and UV–visible spectroscopy. The compositional dependence of the different property parameters such as density, packing density, hardness, thermal expansion coefficient, Tg, criterion of glass stability ΔT = Tx − Tg, optical band gap Egopt, Urbach energy Eu, refractive index and corrosion rate on Gd2O3 content has been determined and discussed. The results show that these glasses have high density, high hardness, good thermal stability and high chemical durability. The variation of all studied glass properties vs. the Gd2O3 concentration can be reasonably explained and comply well with the structure of glasses.