Effect of iron on the dielectric properties of silicate glasses prepared by sol-gel

The sol‐gel method is a very flexible route for producing sieving matrix such as SiO2 with pore radii in nanoscale region to embed oxide particles like Fe2O3. In this work, iron oxide nanoparticles embedded in a SiO2 glassy matrix prepared by the sol‐gel method have been investigated as a function of Fe/Si ratio. Different composition of dried gels with 1, 2, 10 and 20 mol% of Fe2O3 in the SiO2 matrix were heat‐treated (HT) in air, at temperatures from 400 ºC up to 1400 °C. The structure and morphology of the obtained glasses and glass‐ceramics were studied by X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Impedance spectroscopy measurements and magnetic characterization were performed as function of temperature and the results are related with the microstructure. The X‐ray diffraction patterns showed that increasing the amount of Fe2O3 oxide promotes the formation of crystalline phases, in particular silicate phases. The increase of the heat‐treatment temperature has a similar behavior. The electrical and dielectric properties were related with these structural modifications and with the sample morphology. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)