In this paper, silver tellurovanadate 40TeO2-(60-x)V2O5-xAg2O, 0 x 50 mol%, glasses (abbreviated as
TVAgx) are prepared by melt-quenching to study the correlation between structural and acoustical
properties of TVAgx resulting from the substitution of V2O5 by Ag2O. Elastic aspects of these glasses are
investigated by measuring the longitudinal (UL) and shear (US) wave velocities using the pulse-echo
overlap technique at a frequency of 5 MHz at room temperature. Ultrasonic velocities showed nonlinear
trends: increasing behavior for 0 x 20 mol% and decreasing trend for 20 < x 50 mol%.
The structural elucidation was achieved by studying the ultrasonic wave velocities and material density
at room temperature. Longitudinal modulus L, shear modulus G, Young's modulus E, bulk modulus K,
Poisson's ratio s as well as other physical properties such as Debye temperature WD have been determined
and discussed up on the number of bonds per unit volume nb, oxygen ion packing density OPD
and mean atomic volume V. All mentioned quantities are obtained as functions of Ag2O content, in which
they show a behavior change at x ¼ 20 mol% in excellent coincidence with the previously reported
results of thermal stability (DT), optical band gap (Eg), and oxygen molar volume (V
O). The findings
indicate the important role of non-bridging oxygens NBOs. The room temperature ultrasonic wave velocities,
glass transition temperature and other mentioned quantities show a critical content of silver
oxide as x ¼ 20 mol%, indicating that the addition of a silver oxide modifier changes the compactness,
rigidity and content of non-bridging oxygens (NBOs). Compositional dependence of all elastic and other
mentioned properties, imply to two composition regions as: relatively strength structure for 0 x 20
and loose packing structure for 20 < x 50, which is attributed to the increase of NBOs in the second
region. It is also inferred that the glass with x ¼ 20 is more stable, in agreement wi