Spectroscopic study of ZnO doped CeO2–PbO–B2O3 glasses

Glass samples of compositions xZnO–xCeO2–(30−x)PbO–(70−x)B2O3 with x varying from 2% to 10% mole fraction are prepared by the melt quench technique. The structural and optical analysis of glasses is carried out by XRD, FTIR, density and UV–visible spectroscopic measurement techniques. The FTIR spectral analysis indicates that with the addition of ZnO contents in glass network, structural units of BO3 are transformed into BO4. It has been observed in our previous work that band gap decreases from 2.89 to 2.30 eV for CeO2–PbO–B2O3 glasses with cerium content varying from 0% to 10% [Gurinder Pal Singh, Davinder Paul Singh, Physica B 406(3) (2011) 640–644]. With the incorporation of zinc in CeO2–PbO–B2O3 glasses, the optical band gap energy decreases further from 2.38 to 2.03 eV. This causes more compaction of the borate network, which results in an increase of density (3.39–4.02 g/cm3). Transmittance shows that ZnO in glass samples acts as a reducing agent thathelps to convert Ce4+→Ce3+ ions.