The manufacture, optical properties, and mechanical aspects of europium-doped borate glasses

Gharam A Alharshan; A M A Mahmoud; Nasra M Ebrahem; Ragab A Elsad; Shaaban M Shaaban; Mohamed Elsafi; Shimaa Ali Said

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-66939-5

The manufacture, optical properties, and mechanical aspects of europium-doped borate glasses

Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 2;14(1):22920. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66939-5.

Authors

Gharam A Alharshan¹, A M A Mahmoud², Nasra M Ebrahem², Ragab A Elsad³, Shaaban M Shaaban⁴, Mohamed Elsafi⁵, Shimaa Ali Said²

Affiliations

¹ Physics Department, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, 11671, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² Physics Department, Faculty of Science, AL Azhar University (Girls Branch), Cairo, Egypt.
³ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Koom, 32511, Egypt. ragab.elsad@gmail.com.
⁴ Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Northern Border University, 1321, Arar, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21511, Egypt.

Abstract

An investigation into the optical and mechanical properties of a novel borate glasses with the chemical composition of 70 B₂O₃-10 Li₂O-10ZnO-5Bi₂O₃-5CaO-xEu₂O₃ was conducted. The glassy specimens of Eu³⁺-doped borate were prepared by the melting-quenching technique. An enhanced density from 3.0860 to 3.2176 g cm^-3 and reduced molar volume from 29.27819 to 29.17447 (cm³ mol^-1) are the outcome of increasing the concentration of Eu³⁺ in glasses. Plotting the extinction coefficient, dielectric constant (ε₁, ε₂), and refractive index (n) against wavelength reveals that they all rise as level of Eu³⁺ elements in the glass lattice increases. An increase in Eu³⁺ concentration results in a decrease in both the volume (VELF) and surface (SELF) energy loss functions. Also, all elastic-mechanical moduli (such as Young's, Bulk, Shear, and Elongation) increase with increasing the quantity of Eu³⁺ ions in the glass lattice. The Young's modulus (Y, GPa) of the glassy specimens was 34.512, 36.089, 36.504, 36.730 and 37.114 GPa for x equal 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 mol ratio in the glass system, and coded by Eu-0.0, Eu-0.25, Eu-0.5, Eu-0.75 and Eu-1.0, respectively. Growing Eu₂O₃ levels resulted in an increase in Micro-Hardness from 2.050 to 2.146 GPa. Poisson's ratio values for Eu-0.0, Eu-0.250, Eu-0.5, Eu-0.75 and Eu-1.0 were 0.273, 0.275, 0.277, 0.277 and 0.278, respectively.

Keywords: Eu3+; Micro-hardness; Molar volume; Volume energy loss function (VELF); Young’s modulus.