Fabrication of Bi-free TiO₂ nano-crystallized glass

Fabrication of Bi-free transparent TiO₂ glass-ceramics was attained by substitution a mixture of alkaline earth oxide and ZnO for Bi ₂O₃. It is suggested that ZnO, which can play a role of both intermediate and network modifier, is important for the substitution. Observed particle size of precipitated anatase in the glass-ceramics was several nanometers enough to possess high transparency. It was found that diffraction intensity of metastable anatase in XRD patterns of glass-ceramics increases with increasing ZnO-concentration with heat-treatment at T_g + 50 K. The obtained results show that substitution of Bi₂O₃ by thermodynamic approach is effective for glass materials as well as glass-ceramics.