Effect of silver nanoparticles incorporated with samarium-doped magnesium tellurite glasses

Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are incorporated in samarium doped tellurite glass of a composition (89−x)TeO2–10MgO–1Sm2O3–xAgCl, where 0.0≤x≤0.6 mol%, by a melt quenching technique. It is found that all the glasses are amorphous in nature, and the existence of Ag NPs with an average size of 16.94 nm is confirmed by Transmission Electron Microscopy. Meanwhile, their physical properties such as glass density, molar volume and ionic packing density are computed utilizing the normal method. The density and ionic packing density are observed to decrease with increasing Ag NPs, but increase when the Ag NPs are beyond 0.2 mol%. On the other hand, the molar volume behaves exactly opposite to the increase in Ag NPs content. It decreases when the Ag NPs content value is more than 0.2 mol%. The optical energy band gap and Urbach energy are evaluated from the absorption spectra in the range of 200–900 nm at room temperature. It is also observed that the direct and indirect optical energy band gaps reduce with Ag NPs content, but enhance when the Ag NPs are beyond 0.2 mol%. Meanwhile, the Urbach energy is found to increase as the Ag NPs content is increased but decreases when Ag NPs is 0.2 mol%. The refractive index is deduced from indirect optical energy band gap. Meanwhile, molar refraction and electronic polarizability have been calculated from the Lorentz–Lorentz relation. Refractive index and electronic polarizability are also observed to raise with Ag NPs content, but drop off when Ag NPs content is more than 0.2 mol%. In this paper, all properties are discussed with respect to the Ag NPs concentration.