Role of submicron residual fillers in improving optical reflectance of barrier rib glasses for plasma display panels

Abstract

The improvement of optical reflectance of BaO–ZnO–B₂O₃–SiO₂ (BZBS) glass by the addition of various types of micron-scale crystalline fillers (TiO₂, SiO₂, ZrO₂, Al₂O₃, MgO, and cordierite) was investigated for application of the materials to barrier ribs of plasma display panels. The fillers were partially dissolved during sintering, yielding an increased local volume of the fillers in the submicron range, filler rearrangement along boundaries of sintered glass frits, and rather irregular and rugged filler shapes differing from the original morphologies. The measured optical reflectance of the various filler added specimens was within the 30–70% range, which was much higher than the predicted values (less than 10%) based on the rule of mixture of the refractive index. Here we report that the high reflectance of the barrier rib glass for plasma display panels is explained by light scattering by the increased submicron portion of the partially dissolved residual fillers, the size of which is similar to the visual spectrum range (0.4–0.7 μm). The order of reflectance improvement among different types of filler-embedded specimens was consistent with that of the degree of dispersion of the residual fillers in the glass matrix.