Three-component 40TeO2-(60-x)V2O5-xSb2O3 glasses with 0 £ x £ 10 (in
mol.%) were obtained by the rapid melt-quenching method. These glasses
were studied with respect to some mechanical properties with the goal of
obtaining information about their structure. The Vickers hardness test was
employed to obtain Vickers micro-hardness (HV) at two different loads, which
was within the range of 13.187–17.557 GPa for a typical 0.1 HV (0.9807 N)
load. In addition, theoretical micro-hardness (H) was investigated and compared
with experimental HV, showing the elevating trend with increase of
Sb2O3 content, as for HV. Furthermore, differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC) was employed within the range of 150–500C at heating rates of
u = 3 K/min, 6 K/min, 9 K/min, 10 K/min, and 13 K/min. In this work, thermal
stability (Ts = Tcr Tx) and glass forming tendency (Kgl) were measured
and reported for these glasses to determine the relationship between the
chemical composition and the thermal stability, in order to interpret the
structure of glass. Generally, from the ascertained outputs [analysis of
mechanical data, titration study, the values of reduced fraction of vanadium
ions (CV) and oxygen molar volume (V
O)], it was found that the micro-hardness
had an increasing trend with increasing the Sb2O3 content. Among the studied
glasses, the sample with x = 8 had a higher average micro-hardness value, the
highest average thermal stability and glass forming tendency with respect to
the other samples, which makes it a useful material (owning very good
resistance against thermal attacks) for device manufacturing.