The fabrication and characterization of Nd doped SiO2P2O5 glass by the sol gel route / Nur Hafiza Bashiron

The sol-gel process involves the sol (or solution) that evolves gradually towards the formation of a gel-like network containing both a liquid phase and a solid phase. In this research work, a fabrication of neodymium doped silica phosphate glass using sol gel technique had been carried out. The samples were fabricated by using with different content of raw material such as SiO2, P2O5 and Nd2O3 in different weight percentages. Five samples with Nd content ranging from 0 mol % to 4 mol % were prepared by using sol gel technique. Then, the samples were characterized by using Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis and Scanning Electron Analysis (SEM) respectively. From the results, it is obviously been seen that the TGA results show a decrement trend of result ranging from 10 % to 60% for all samples. Meanwhile, the FTIR spectra show the vibrational peak around 843 cm- I corresponding to Si-O-Si functional group that resulted the formation of the glass through the sol gel method. Meanwhile, SEM also proves that the morphology of surface shows the great crystallization process of the glass matrix after it has been heat-treated.