Novel Aspects Of Structural Studies Of Glasses And Glass Ceramics

The recent progress of structural studies of glasses using sophisticated NMR methods are presented. It will be shown that Qn group of connectivities can be measured quantitatively. In silicate glasses, small "clusters" of up to five silicate tetrahedra can be detected and the statistics, depending on glass composition, can be estimated. For binary sodium silicate glasses, these NMR data are compared with those from MD simulations. It will also be shown that connectivities between different structural units, e.g. between borate and phosphate groups, can be measured in correspondingly composed ternary glasses.