Fe2O3 Modified Physical, Structural and Optical Properties of Bismuth Silicate Glasses

Iron-containing bismuth silicate glasses with compositions 60SiO2·(100−x)Bi2O3·xFe2O3 have been prepared by conventional melt-quenching technique. The amorphous nature of the glass samples has been ascertained by the X-ray diffraction. The density (d) has been measured using Archimedes principle, molar volume (Vm) has also been estimated, and both are observed to decrease with the increase in iron content. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of these iron bismuth silicate glasses has been determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique, and it increases with the increase in Fe2O3 content. The IR spectra of these glasses consist mainly of [BiO6], [BiO3], and [SiO4] structural units. The optical properties are measured using UV-VIS spectroscopy. The optical bandgap energy (Eop) is observed to decrease with the increase in Fe2O3 content, whereas reverse trend is observed for refractive index