Solubility of rare earth iron garnets in PbO- B2O3flux-anionic model

An anionic solubility model is presented for the description of the solubility of Y
3
Fe
5
O
12
, (YSmLuCa)
3
(FeGe)
5
O
12
and Gd
3
Ga
5
O
12
in the PbO-B
2
O
3
flux. The model is based on the assumptions: 1) lead oxide is partially dissociated in a molten oxide mixture used for growth of garnets and oxygen reacts with other oxides forming BO
3
^3-
, FeO
3
^3-
, RO
6
^9-
, GaO
4
^5-
anions and 2) garnets are split into these anions. Since little is known about the reactions taking place in the melt a suitable calculating procedure had to be derived to verify the model. The obtained results - the solubility plots of garnets, the equilibrium constants and the products of reactions are presented and discussed.