Microstructure, mechanical, thermal, EPR, and optical properties of MgAl2O4:Cr3+ spinel glass–ceramic nanocomposites

Abstract The mechanical, thermal, and optical properties, along with the microstructure and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra, have been studied for MgAl 2 O 4 :Cr 3+ spinel glass and glass–ceramics. The activation energy of the crystallization has been estimated from the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) study using different models and is found to vary within 255–270 kJ/mol for the un-doped precursor glass. The microstructure of the glass–ceramics has been characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TEM images demonstrate the presence of cubic crystals in the glass–ceramics of uniform size 10–15 nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy reveal the presence of MgAl 2 O 4 spinel as the only crystalline phase, formed in the heat-treated glass–ceramics. The EPR spectrum of Cr 3+ doped glass sample exhibits a broad resonance signal with effective g = 1.97 whereas in glass–ceramic sample an additional weak resonance signal is observed at g = 3.83. The excitation spectrum exhibits two bands in the visible region. The emission spectrum exhibits an intense red emission at 690 nm which is characteristic of Cr 3+ ions caused by the spin-forbidden 2 E g → 4 A 2g transition. All the mechanical properties are found to have improved in the glass–ceramics when compared to glasses. A good combination of micro-hardness (∼6.0 GPa), high fracture toughness (∼5.0 MPa m 1/2 ), 3 point flexural strength (∼100 MPa) and elastic modulus (∼55 GPa) has been obtained for the glass–ceramic samples.