Structural Modification of Alkali Tellurite Binary Glass System and Its Characterization

This paper presents results and observations obtained from a study of the optical and thermal properties of alkali tellurite depending on the composition. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra showed evidence of chemical modification from $TeO_4$ trigonal bipyramids (tbp) to $TeO_3$ trigonal pyramids (tp) in tellurite glasses. The optical band gaps of the different glass samples calculated using Tauc's method were found to range from 3.5-3.8 eV. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and glass stability (${\Delta}T$) of alkali tellurite glasses were investigated, as $M_2O$ [M: Li, Na, K] amounted to 25 mol%, through the use of differential thermal analysis (DTA). The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) was measured in a thermo mechanical analysis (TMA) with a slow heating rate after the glass samples were annealed. The results confirm that the optical band gap of alkali tellurite glasses depends on the Te-O-Te structural relaxation related to the ratio of bridging/non bridging oxygen (BO/NBO). In contrast, the thermal properties are related to the ionic field strength of the Te-O-M and M-O-M bonds, and the Te-O-Te breakage depends on the ratio of BO/NBO.