Solubility of rare earth iron garnets in PbO- B2O3flux-anionic model

An anionic solubility model is presented for the description of the solubility of Y3Fe5O12, (YSmLuCa)3(FeGe)5O12and Gd3Ga5O12in the PbO-B2O3flux. The model is based on the assumptions: 1) lead oxide is partially dissociated in a molten oxide mixture used for growth of garnets and oxygen reacts with other oxides forming BO3^3-, FeO3^3-, RO6^9-, GaO4^5-anions and 2) garnets are split into these anions. Since little is known about the reactions taking place in the melt a suitable calculating procedure had to be derived to verify the model. The obtained results - the solubility plots of garnets, the equilibrium constants and the products of reactions are presented and discussed.