Chapter 2 - Composition, Structure and Properties of Inorganic and Organic Glasses

Abstract

This chapter reviews various methods and techniques to analyze the composition, structure, and properties of organic and inorganic glasses. The scientific investigation of the composition and properties of inorganic glass started in the nineteenth century. By comparison, the development of organic glass is just in its early stages. The glassy state is known in some elements, notably selenium and tellurium. Selenium also forms glassy mixtures with phosphorus. A number of salts may exist as glass. The central difference among metallic, semiconductive, and oxide glasses lies in the relative strengths of their chemical bonds as measured by the energy gap between occupied and unoccupied electronic states. Glass contains ordered zones of small crystallites. In the crystallite hypothesis, it is assumed that glass may contain both amorphous and crystalline zones that are linked by an intermediate formation. Glassy materials can be considered as frozen-in liquids that consist, in the case of oxidic materials, of polymer chains with branches and cross linkages. With the exception of quartz glass, all types of industrial glass are multicomponent systems.