FT-IR and Raman study of silver lead borate-based glasses

Glasses from the xMnO · (100−x)[3B2O3 · 0.9PbO · 0.1Ag2O] system with 0 ⩽ x ⩽ 20 mol% have been prepared and studied by means of FT-IR absorption and Raman scattering. We interpreted the spectroscopic data in conjunction with the structural information obtained by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The X-ray patterns have showed homogenous glasses over the entire compositional range while the SEM pictures have detected metallic silver or Ag2O clusters dispersed in the glass network. Acting as complementary spectroscopic techniques, both types of measurements, FT-IR and Raman, revealed that the network structure of the studied glasses is mainly based on BO3 and BO4 units placed in different structural groups, the BO3 units being dominant. The influence of manganese-ion content (x), on the NBO4/NBO3 ratio evolution was investigated.