Network Structure of Oxide Glasses Containing Alkali & Other Ions by Diffraction and MD Simulations

Abstract

ABSTRACTNetwork structures of several kinds of oxide glasses were analyzed by means of neutron or x-ray diffraction method and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations including silicate, borate and tellurite glasses. The basic scheme of the structure highly depends on the bonding nature of network forming oxide, but the size of the alkali ions is another important factor to control the network structure of the glass. Structures of silicate glasses are rather easily reproduced by means of MD simulation, whereas borate or tellurite glass structures are hard to be constructed by MD calculation with only 2-body potentials. It is necessary to use adequate potentials to control the bonding angles of O-M-O or M-O-M. The network structure of tellurite glass seems very complex because of the shape of structural units with low symmetry, the use of a new kind of potential was found indispensable to reproduce the glass structure by MD.In addition to the network structure, the polarization of ions seems to be important to understand the whole vision of oxide glass structures. A new kind of MD was developed which took polarization of ions into account to understand the mixed alkali effects in silicate glasses.