Correlation of Optical and Mechanical Properties of Silver Nanoparticles Sensitized Europium Doped Magnesium Zinc Sulfophosphate Glasses

Abstract

Magnesium-zinc-sulfophosphate glasses with various concentration of Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) of molar composition 63.5P2O5–20MgO –15ZnSO4–1.5Eu2O3 –yAgNps (y = 0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7,0.9 and 1.1 g in excess) were prepared via melt-quenching method. As-synthesized glasses were characterized at room temperature to determine the relationship between structural and mechanical properties. Densities of glasses were increased from 3.0720 to 4.3304 g.cm-3 with increase in AgNPs embedding levels, suggesting the network shrinkages and enhanced compactness. The Young’s, shear and bulk modulus of glasses were observed to enhance with the increase in AgNPs contents. The Poisson’s ratio of the studied glasses was increased from (0.0978 to 0.1416) while the values of both Vickers hardness (from 0.0658 to 0. 0.0682 GPa) as well as (from 0.8350 to 0.8916) were increased. The proposed glass composition may be useful for the development of hard surface engineering.