A Review on Infrared Spectroscopy of Borate Glasses with Effects of Different Additives

Abstract

Borate glasses are the technologically important class of glasses and play a significant role in various applications. Borate glasses contain planar BO ₃ groups as structural units, rather than tetrahedral SiO ₄ groups. The oxygen atoms are, as in SiO ₂, again connected to two network-forming atoms, in case of boron. The radial distribution analysis describes the B ₂O ₃ glass structure as consisting of boroxol rings, that is, planar rings containing three boron atoms and three oxygen atoms. The network forming of the B ₂O ₃ and the SiO ₄ is affected with the addition of some metal cation additives Pb, Zn, Cd, and so forth. These additives also work as a network modifier and a nucleating agent for crystallization of glass. Therefore, the optical properties of the borate glasses have been changed significantly.