Ceramic crucibles: a new alternative for melting of PbO-BiO1.5-GaO1.5 glasses

PbO-Bi₂O₃-Ga₂O₃ glasses present interesting properties such as good transmission in the mid-infrared region, high magnetic Verdet constant and non-linear properties. The processing of these heavy-metal-oxide (HMO) glasses is limited by the high corrosive nature of the melt, even in relation to noble metal crucibles. In this work, three kinds of ceramic crucibles (alumina, tin oxide and zirconia) were tested for melting HMO glasses. The main physical properties of the prepared glasses, such as the characteristic temperatures, optical transmission were studied in function of the crucible nature, time/temperature melting parameters. The incorporation of crucible material in the glasses was determined by ICP and atomic absorption. The maximum glass contamination from the crucible was 2.9, 1.6 and 3.6 mol% for Al₂O₃, SnO₂ and ZrO₂ crucibles, respectively, when melting was done at 900 °C/240 min, for zirconia crucibles and at 1000 °C/60 min, for the other two crucibles. The evolution of the physical properties was discussed as a function of contamination degree.