Tellurite glasses: correlations between elastic and compositional parameters

Correlations between acoustical properties and many critical compositional parameters were studied in order to determine the structural role of B(2)O(3), ZnO, BaO, La(2)O(3), TiO(2), V(2)O(5), Bi(2)O(3), WO(3), Ag(2)O, Na(2)O, K(2)O, and Li(2)O oxides in the tellurite glass network. Fractal bond connectivity, average atomic volume, network dimensionality, packing density and average crosslink density all play an important role in determining the mechanical properties of the glass. The dependence of Poisson's ratio (mu) on the fractal bond connectivity (d) was fitted into an empirical linear relation: mu=0.5-0-09d. Moreover, the bulk modulus (K) was found to be related to the mean atomic volume ((V) over dot) by an inverse relation K(V) over dot(0.4)=72.5. The elastic moduli and Poisson's ratio were evaluated for the investigated glasses using Makishima \& Mackenzie theory. The relationship between theoretically calculated and experimentally measured values of elastic moduli and Poisson's ratio has been investigated. It has been found that the theoretical values are in excellent agreement with the corresponding measured ones, except in V(2)O(5)-containing glasses. The disagreement has been discussed in terms of the structure of these glasses.