A Raman spectroscopic study of glasses along the joins silica-calcium aluminate, silica-sodium aluminate, and silica-potassium aluminate

Aluminosilicate glasses with compositions along the joins silica-calcium aluminate, silica sodium aluminate and silica-potassium aluminate have been prepared by conventional and solar melting techniques and studied by Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectra of crystalline calcium aluminate, anorthite and silica polymorphs are discussed in relation to their crystal structures, and compared with the spectra of the corresponding glasses. The glass and crystal spectra are generally comparable, suggesting similar vibrational structures. These crystals have structures based on tetrahedral aluminosilicate frameworks, and a similar molecular structure is suggested for the glasses, although it is noted that the Raman spectra do not directly characterize the aluminate polyhedra. Within the three glass series, our interpretation of the unresolved high-frequency bands shows the appearance of discrete bands near 1120, 1000, 930 and 890 cm^-1 as the silica content is decreased. This is compared with the behaviour of high-frequency bands in simple silicate systems, and used to suggest that the four bands in the aluminosilicate systems are due to stretching vibrations of silicate tetrahedra bound to one, two, three and four aluminium atoms. The spectra of calcium, sodium, potassium and lithium aluminosilicate glasses with similar silica contents are compared, and interpreted by the above model. This is used to construct a simple model for the effect of metal cation on aluminosilicate molecular groups in the glass structure, consistent with the results of calorimetric studies on similar systems.