The Structural, Physical and Optical Properties of Borotellurite Glasses Incorporated with Silica from Rice Husk

Abstract

From the agricultural waste of rice (rice husk), high purity SiO2 with about 98.548 % purity was extracted using a very simple room temperature leaching method. Using the rice husk extracted silicate, a system of silicate borotellurite glasses was fabricated with composition equation [(TeO2)0.7 (B2O3)0.3]1-x (SiO2)x with x= 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4. The density and molar volume were measured, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-Vis analyses were performed on the glasses. Both the density and molar volume decreased and the XRD pattern confirmed the glasses' amorphous nature. The FTIR showed the presence of TeO3, TeO4, BO3, BO2O, SiO4, and H3BO3 structural units in the glasses. The concentrations of TeO3, TeO4, BO3 and BO2O structures were determined by the deconvolution of the FTIR spectra using an Origin software. The optical energy band gap, index of refraction, oxygen packing density (OPD), molar refractive index, metallization criterion and polaron radius were determined for the glasses. Based on the glass transparency, high refractive index value (2.3026 and 2.2937) and metallization criterion (0.4109 and 0.4132) of the glasses with x= 0.1 and 0.2 have potential for fiber and optical non-linear applications.