Characterization of rare earth aluminosilicate glasses

Rare earth glasses are commonly used in lasers, sensors and radiation shield glasses. Rare earth aluminosilicate-based glasses have been successfully used as in vivo radiation delivery vehicles, in treatment of primary hepatocellular carcinoma, irradiation of diseased synovial membrane for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and treatment of prostate tumors. These glasses have also been found useful to promote liquid-phase sintering of covalent ceramics and, specifically, silicon carbide-based ceramics. Usually, the SiO2–Al2O3–RE2O3 system is used as sintering additives. In this work, several rare earth silicate glasses (RE = Y, La, Nd, Dy and Yb) were prepared based on 60%SiO2–20%Al2O3–20%RE2O3 (mol%) compositions. These glasses were characterized by infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. Moreover, the liquid phase sintering of silicon carbide ceramics was studied using dilatometric experiments with 10 vol.% additives of the 60%SiO2–20%Al2O3–20%RE2O3 system.