Comprehensive studies of activity of Ni in inorganic sodium borosilicate glasses doped with nickel oxide

Abstract Sodium borosilicate (SBS) glasses containing nickel oxide were prepared by charge melting method, whereas their surface, structure and physical properties were investigated using a variety of complementary techniques. The chemical composition of the glasses was determined by standard analytical methods. Characterization of the glass structure was carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy before and after immersion of the glasses in HCl solution. SEM was utilized to observe the morphological changes of the samples surfaces upon immersion in HCl. The atomic ratio of the final result product was obtained by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The dynamic impedance spectroscopy (DIS) revealed the presence of various relaxation processes attributed to the addition of nickel oxide into the SBS glass structure, while the magnetic studies revealed antiferromagnetic properties related to the presence of the admixture. The experiments enable to study the effect of nickel oxide addition as well as changes caused by an increase of boron content and showed that the magnetic susceptibility of the glasses is correlated to the boron content, which is likely due to the increase of Ni2+ in octahedral coordination.