Structural characterisation of binary magnesium ultraphosphate glasses by vibrational spectroscopy

A series of binary magnesium ultraphosphate glasses, xMgO.(1–x)P₂O₅ with 0≤x≤0·5, are characterised by infrared and Raman spectroscopy and chemical analysis. By evaluation of the infrared and Raman spectra the structure of magnesium ultraphosphate glasses was found to be similar to the structure of zinc ultraphosphate glasses. In comparison with the zinc and calcium ultraphosphate glasses, respectively, a uniform model of the structure of binary ultraphosphate glasses is formulated, valid for all systems with stable crystalline compounds of the composition MeP₄O₁₁ and Me(PO₃)₂. Based on the results of this work, a further generalisation of the model of glass structure to any binary ultraphosphate systems is not useful at the present time.