Optical and microhardness measurement of lead silicate

Lead silicate glasses, PbO−SiO2, are interesting because these glasses exhibit thermal, optical, and mechanical properties different than other silicate glasses, and they form a thermally and chemically stable glass over a wide composition range. They are also interesting as PbO acts as glass modifier and as glass former depending on the concentration. In the present work we have prepared lead silicate glasses (xPbO−(1−x).SiO2) by melt quenching. We measured UV absorbance, Vickers hardness, and glass transition for these samples. It is found that band gap is proportional to glass transition.