AL ENVIRONMENT IN TECTOSILICATE AND PERALUMINOUS GLASSES: A 27AL MQ-MAS NMR, RAMAN, AND XANES INVESTIGATION

Abstract

Tecto-aluminosilicate and peraluminous glasses have been prepared by conventional and laser heating techniques, respectively, in the CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 system. The structure of these glasses were studied using Raman spectroscopy, X-ray absorption at the Al K-edge and 27Al NMR spectroscopy with two different high fields (400 and 750 MHz). Raman spectroscopy and X-ray absorption are techniques sensitive to the network polymerization and, in particular, show different signal as a function of silica content. However, these two techniques are less sensitive than NMR to describe the local aluminium environment. For tectosilicate glasses, aluminium in five-fold coordination, [5]Al, was found and a careful quantification allows the determination of a significant amount of [5]Al (7% in the anorthite glass). The proportion of [5]Al increases for the peraluminous glasses with small amounts (<2%) of six-fold coordination, [6]Al. The presence of [5]Al agrees with previous observations of the existence of nonbridging oxygens (NBOs) in tectosilicate compositions. However, the proportion of [5]Al in the present study indicates that no major proportion of triclusters (oxygen coordinated to three (Si,Al)O4 tetrahedra) is required to explain these NBOS.