Structural, electrical and photocatalytic properties of iron-containing soda-lime aluminosilicate glass and glass-ceramics

The structure and electrical conductivity of iron-containing soda-lime alumino-silicate glass-ceramic system were investigated and used for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) solution. Mössbauer isomer shifts were decreased from 0.26 and 0.25 to 0.14 and 0.12 mm s-1 with increasing basicity from 0.75 to 1.50 revealing the cleavage in network structure due to the incorporation of Ca2+ ions. By increasing basicity from 0.75 to 1.50, the electrical conductivity was increased from (2.2 × 10-12 to 2.2 × 10-8 Ω -1 cm-1 ). More increase in basicity to 1.75 decreased the conductivity to 6.5× 10-9 Ω -1 cm-1 . The electrical conductivity is ionic in nature and was correlated to the microstructure of the samples. The first-order rate constant (k) for the MB degradation was enhanced from 0.09 × 10-1 to 1.15 × 10−1 min−1 with increasing basicity from 0.75 to 1.50, having a good correlation with microstructure and electrical conductivity.