Raman and FTIR spectra of CeO2 and Gd2O3 in iron phosphate glasses

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds 2014-12, Vol.617, p.597-601
• Main Authors: Lai, Yuanming, Liang, Xiaofeng, Yang, Shiyuan, Liu, Pei, Zeng, Yiming, Hu, Changyi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cerium oxide; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Disordered solids; Exact sciences and technology; FTIR spectra; Gadolinium oxide; Glasses; Iron phosphate glasses; Physics; Raman spectra; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.08.051

•The structure of the studied samples has been investigated by Raman and FTIR spectroscopy.•The structure for the all samples has similar features.•The structure consists of predominantly Q1 with a fraction of Q0 and Q2 units.•The Ce and Gd enters in the structure of studied glasses as a network modifier. In the present work, multicomponent oxide samples of composition x(CeO2+Gd2O3)–(40−x)Fe2O3–60P2O5 (0⩽x⩽8mol%) were produced by conventional melting method. The samples were investigated to examine the effect of the CeO2 and Gd2O3 composition on the structure of the iron phosphate glasses system. The X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the x⩽6mol% samples show all the samples formed homogeneous glass, but for the x=8mol% samples show the presence of randomly distributed crystalline phase embedded in an amorphous matrix. The x(CeO2+Gd2O3)–(40−x)Fe2O3–60P2O5 glass containing 8mol% CeO2 and Gd2O3 partially crystallized during annealing and Ce/Gd-rich were identified by EDS in the crystalline phase. The structure of the studied samples has been investigated using Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The Raman and FTIR spectra for the samples have analogous spectral features. The Raman and FTIR spectra suggest that the structure is mainly constituted by the pyrophosphate glass based structure, with a part proportion of metaphosphate and orthophosphate structure. Raman and FTIR spectra allowed us to identify the structural units which appear in the structural network of these phosphate glasses and also the network modifier role of cerium and gadolinium ions.