• Majerus, O.
• Jollivet, P.
• Panczer, Gérard
• Barboux, P.
• Angeli, F.
• Guyot, Yannick
• Molieres, E.
• Aschehoug, P.
• Gin, S.

Abstract

The local environment of europium in soda-lime borosilicate glasses with a range of La2O3 content was probed by continuous luminescence and Fluorescence Line Narrowing (FLN) to investigate the local environment of rare earth elements in pristine and leached glass. After aqueous leaching at 90 °C at pH 7 and 9.5, rare earths were fully retained and homogeneously distributed in the amorphous alteration layer (commonly called gel). Two separate silicate environments were observed in pristine and leached glasses regardless of the lanthanum content and the leaching conditions. A borate environment surrounding europium was not observed in pristine and leached glasses. During glass alteration, OH groups were located around the europium environment, which became more organized (higher symmetry) in the first coordination shell.

Topics

• amorphous
• glass
• glass
• Lanthanum
• leaching
• lime
• rare earth metal
• luminescence
• Europium