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Melting Apparatus for the Synthesis of Bulk ZrF 4 ‐Based Fluoride Glass
Author(s) -
Broer Matthijs M.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.1989.tb06161.x
Subject(s) - fluoride , crucible (geodemography) , materials science , metallurgy , glass tube , melting point , induction furnace , mineralogy , tube (container) , composite material , chemistry , inorganic chemistry , computational chemistry , alloy
Heavy‐metal fluoride glasses are currently prepared by melting of the solid fluoride precursors. We have constructed a melting facility for the synthesis of ZrF 4 ‐based fluoride glass cullet. This stand‐alone system provides a controlled (dry and reactive) atmosphere and in situ quenching of the melts. The glass is melted in a vitreous carbon crucible, which is mounted in a silica tube flow reactor. The reactor is resistively heated with a tube furnace and purged with He and SF 6 or Cl 2 . It was found that of the latter two halogenating species only Cl 2 prevents effectively the formation of black inclusions in the melt (ZrF 3 and ZrF 2 particles). With this melting apparatus we have routinely melted 250‐g batches of optically clear ZrF 4 –BaF 2 –LaF 3 –AlF 3 –NaF glass samples.