Preparation and characterisation of thermomechanical properties of sol-gel derived glasses in the PbO-SiO2-B2O3-ZnO system

Silicate glasses with high contents of lead oxide are for example used as optical glasses and as solder glasses. In spite of the numerous usabilities their manufacturing is sometimes difficult, since these melts are chemically aggressive, and the evaporation of lead during melting cannot be avoided. The sol-gel process may be assumed to be an alternative preparation route, since lower temperatures can be used and more homogeneous glasses can be obtained. Thus mixing problems of SiO2 and PbO due to very different densities could be avoided