Kinetics of glass transition and thermal stability of Se58Ge42−x Pb x (9≤x≤20) glasses

Se58Ge42−xPbx (9≤x≤20) glasses have been prepared using conventional melt quenching technique. Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) measurements show single glass transition and double crystallization, which indicate the occurrence of phase separation in the samples. The phases present in the samples were identified using XRD. The kinetics of the glass transition has been studied in terms of the variation of glass transition temperature with composition and heating rate. In addition to this, activation energy of the glass transition (Et) has also been evaluated and its composition dependence is also investigated. The thermal stability of these glasses has been investigated using various stability criteria: Deiztal first glass criterion, ΔT, Saad and Poulain weighted thermal stability, H′ and the S-parameter. The values of these parameters were obtained using various characteristic temperatures such as the glass transition temperature, Tg, the onset temperature of crystallization, Tc, and the peak crystallization temperature, Tp. The values of stability parameters show that the phase corresponding to second crystallization is more stable than the phase corresponding to first one. The stability in terms of the lead (Pb) content has been determined considering the values of stability parameters of the phase corresponding to second peak. It was found that the stability increases with the lead content.