Effect of heat treatment on optical, dielectric and mechanical properties of silver nanoparticle embedded CaO-CaF2-P2O5 glass

Silver nanoparticle have been embedded in CaO-CaF2-P2O5 glass using melt quenching technique. The quenched glasses were heat treated at 550 degrees C for 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 h. The growth of silver nanoparticle in the glass matrix appeared to be time dependent. FTIR spectra show that silver nanoparticle formation has not affected the vibration bands of basic phosphate tetrahedral network. The increase in compactness of the glass structure is confirmed by increase in measured density of the glasses with increase in the duration of the heat treatment. Glass containing spherical silver nanoparticle shows the red shift and increase in the full width half maxima (FWHM) of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in the visible region with increase in the duration of the heat treatment. X-ray diffraction pattern indicated the presence of Ag crystalline peaks along with amorphous structure on heat treating at 550 degrees C for 50 h. For the glass samples, the increase in dielectric constant and low dielectric loss around 0.005 were observed with increase in duration of the heat treatment. Both Vickers hardness and fracture toughness increased while the brittleness decreased which can be attributed to the increase in size of the nanoparticles in glass matrix. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.