Structural studies of Bi2O3-Nb2O5-TeO2 glasses

Bi2O3-Nb2O5-TeO2 glasses show unusual annealing behavior with appearance of spherulites within the matrix glass structure for the Bi0.5Nb0.5Te3O8 composition. The textures resemble those found previously among polyamorphic Al2O3-Y2O3 glasses containing metastably co-existing high- and low-density phases produced during quenching. However the spherulites produced within the Bi2O3-Nb2O5-TeO2 glass are crystalline and can be identified as an “anti-glass” phase related to β-Bi2Te4O11. We used high energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction data to study structures of binary and ternary glasses quenched from liquids within the Bi2O3-Nb2O5-TeO2 system. These reveal a glassy network based on interconnected TeO4 and TeO3 units that is related to TeO2 crystalline materials but with larger Te…Te separations due to the presence of TeO3 groups and non-bridging oxygens linked to modifier (Bi3+, Nb5+) cations. Analysis of the viscosity-temperature relations indicates that the glass-forming liquids are “fragile” and there is no evidence for a LLPT occurring in the supercooled liquid. The glasses obtained by quenching likely correspond to a high-density amorphous (HDA) state. Subsequent annealing above Tg shows mainly evidence for direct crystallization of the “anti-glass” tellurite phase. However, some evidence may exist for simultaneous formation of nanoscale amorphous spherulites that could correspond to the LDA polyamorph. The quenching and annealing behavior of Bi2O3-Nb2O5-TeO2 supercooled liquids and glasses is compared with similar materials in the Al2O3-Y2O3 system.