Effect of alkali and alkaline earth fluoride introduction on thermal stability and structure of fluorophosphate glasses

Abstract The thermal stability and structure of RF–RF 2 –AlF 3 –Al(PO 3 ) 3 fluorophosphate glasses were investigated. Analyses of infrared absorbance spectra and Raman spectra reveal that with increasing number of alkali and alkaline earth fluoride components, the sum of P O P bond and O P O bond increases and glass network is strengthened. Consequently, the inhibition to nucleation and crystallization processes is improved, which is proved by the increment of thermal stability factors Δ T and S determined by differential scanning calorimetry. In addition, it was found that LiF has poor ability to form glass in univalent alkali fluorides and MgF 2 has comparative strong ability to form glass in bivalent alkaline earth fluorides.