Fabrication of Transparent Silica Glass by Powder Sintering Method Aiming Desired Shape Molding

Abstract

In this paper, we present a procedure for fabricating transparent silica glass that uses a mesoporous SiO₂-PVA(poly(vinyl alcohol)) nanocomposite as a silica glass precursor. By sintering the nanocomposite in air at 1100°C, monolithic trasnsparent silica glass was obtained with no crack. Micropatterns on the nanocomposite were fabricated by room-temperature imprinting. Micropatterned silica glass was obtained by sintering the nanocomposite at 1100°C in air. The sintered glass possessed various color photoluminescence (PL) under UV irradiation, depending on the kind of rare earth and transition metal ions.