Effect of CeO2 and Eu2O3 on the calorimetric behavior of Si-Al-Zn-K-Ti oxide glass

Glasses and glass-ceramics based on SiO2 have attracted a large attention. In this work, the thermal properties and crystallization kinetics of Si–Al–Zn–K–Ti glasses are investigated. Based on the thermal parameters derived from the differential scanning calorimetry technique ran upon various heating rates, the characteristic glass transition temperature, onset crystallization temperature and crystallization temperature were extracted. The crystallization peaks are carefully investigated by Kissinger, Ozawa and modified-Kissinger methods. Avrami index and the dimensionality of the crystal growth vary from 2 to 4 at the same time that crystallization activation energy decrease from 177.80 kJ/mol to 145.40 kJ/mol in Ozawa method and the thermal stability reaches to 177.20 ΔC° by doping with 0.5 wt% of CeO2 and 0.5 wt% of Eu2O3, both in excess. Our results confirm the role of rare earth ions in the crystallization kinetics, as well as improvement in the glass thermal stability.