Synthesis of novel AgO-doped vanadium-borophosphate semiconducting glasses and investigation of their optical, structural, and thermal properties

Ag-doped vanadium-borophosphate glasses having 46V(2)O(5)-46P(2)O(5)-(8 - x)B2O3-xAgO as the base structure have been successfully synthesized with different compositions of AgO (x = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 mol%) by the conventional melt-quenching technique. Density and molar volume values were calculated by Archimedes principle. The transmittance and absorbance spectra, XRD, and FTIR measurements of the glasses were performed at room temperature. While XRD data showed that the glasses had an amorphous structure away from crystallization, FTIR spectra showed that vanadium and phosphate compounds forming the glass network consisted of VO4, VO5 and PO3, PO2 structural units, respectively. It was observed that AgO, which replaces B2O3, acted as a modifier in the glass network. Direct and indirect band gaps of synthesized glasses were calculated using Tauc method. Urbach energies were also calculated. The glass transition temperature, crystallization temperature, and melting temperature values of the samples were determined with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in the range of room temperature to 1000 degrees C.