Bismuth-doped aluminate glasses with gehlenite matrix

Investigator: M. Majerová

Aluminate glasses are interesting in terms of their basic structure. The main net forming element is aluminum, while in conventional glasses it is e.g. silicon. Aluminate glasses have excellent mechanical properties, excellent corrosion resistance, show better light and heat resistance and better light conductivity than common silicate glasses. Another important property of these glasses is, that they are transparent to ultraviolet, visible and infrared radiation and therefore can be used as host metrices for optically active dopants. Doping with suitable rare-earth (RE) elements with photoluminescent properties, they can use as a luminophores in semiconductor lasers, optical wires and LEDs. Recent dramatic increase of price, limited resources, caused that the use of RE become a technological and economical bottleneck in production of LED. Therefore, it is very important to develop processes and technologies for preparation of phosphors, which don´t require the use of RE elements. One solution is to use transition metal ions, which are optically active. Gehlenite glasses belong to the group of calcium-aluminosilicate glasses, which form a subset of aluminate glasses. The optical properties of gehlenite glass microspheres, which were optically activated by addition of Bi, were observed. The prepared glasses emit light in the visible, deep red and near infrared regions of the spectrum, demonstrating that Bi is incorporated into the gehlenite structure in three oxidation state: Bi³⁺, Bi²⁺ and Bi⁺.

Related projects:

VEGA 2/0164/17

The results were achieved in cooperation with the VITRUM LAUGARICIO – Joint Glass Center of the IIC SAS, TnU AD, FChPT STU and Centre for Functional and Surface Functionalized Glass (FunGlass) of Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín in Trenčín.

Publication:

MAJEROVÁ, Melinda – KLEMENT, R. – PRNOVÁ, A. – KRAXNER, J. – BRUNEEL, E. – GALUSEK, D. Crystallization and visible–near-infrared luminescence of Bi-doped gehlenite glass. In Royal Society Open Science, 2018, vol. 5, no. 12, p. 181667. ISSN 2054-5703. (2.504-IF2017), Q1.