Study of chemical stability in phosphate glasses

• Grant number: 17/01089-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2017
• End date: August 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Fabio Aparecido Ferri
• Grantee: Fabio Aparecido Ferri
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Jefferson Esquina Tsuchida ; Paulo Sergio Pizani

Abstract

Phosphate glasses are materials with great potential for technological applications, for example, as biomaterials, optical devices, sensors, solid-state batteries, glass-metal hermetic seals, immobilizer matrices of industrial and radiative waste, etc. The study of the structure of these systems is a topic of basic and technological importance, since there is a close correlation between the structure of the glass network (in short and medium range) and the macroscopic properties such as density, mechanical resistance, thermal expansion, index of refraction, thermal conductivity, glass transition temperature, among others. However, most of the phosphate glasses have a low chemical stability when compared to other oxide glasses, when exposed to normal atmospheric conditions or in contact with aqueous solutions, a fundamental aspect that must be solved to use the material in technological applications. With respect to this problem, the addition of Al in the phosphate compositions is a factor which tends to substantially increase the chemical stability of the phosphate glasses. The purpose of this research is to increase the chemical stability of phosphate glasses by including aluminum metaphosphate, where we will study the minimum amount of this compound needed to increase the stability of a given glass without damaging other physical properties of this compound. We therefore plan to synthesize different phosphate glass compositions and test different aluminum metaphosphate replacement fractions, and thus perform a detailed structural characterization using various spectroscopy techniques. We also intend to analyze several physical properties in order to obtain a more detailed structural interpretation and thus to advance in increasing the chemical stability of phosphate glasses which is a vital problem in the use of these materials for technological applications. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

GARCIA RIVERA, VICTOR ANTHONY; FERRI, FABIO A.; GEHLEN, MARCELO H.; NUNES, LUIZ ANTONIO O.; MAREGA, JR., EUCLYDES. Suitable Er3+-doped tellurite glass-based plasmonic structures for nanophotonic device applications. Optical Engineering, v. 57, n. 8, AUG 2018. (17/01089-6)