A comparative study: On the properties of PbO-SiO2 glass systems synthesized via different routes

The present work is an attempt to modify the conventional glass preparation technique to make it suitable for developing high quality nanoglasses for technical applications. Lead oxide doped silicate glass systems (PbO-SiO2) were prepared by employing three different morphological combinations of the precursor materials. The bulk glass (BB) was prepared using both the precursors of PbO and SiO2 in bulk phases. The nanoglass (NB) was synthesized by doping PbO nanoparticles into the bulk phase SiO2 matrix. In the sol-gel glass (NN) both PbO and SiO2 precursors were in the nanophases. Conventional melt quenching technique was also used to obtain the glasses in their final rigid form. XRD, FESEM, FTIR, UV-vis DRS and PL were used to characterize the physical properties of the three glasses. A comparative study of the results indicated the superiority of the NB and NN glasses in certain desired aspects over the BB glass.