Local environment and dynamics of PO4 tetrahedra in Na-Al-PO3 glasses and melts

Glasses and melts in the system (NaPO3)(1-x)(Al(PO3)3)x were studied with the aim of obtaining information about the structure on the next larger scale beyond the PO4 group. Magic angle spinning NMR was applied to the pure NaPO3 glass and Raman scattering to systems with x = 0.00, 0.03, 0.06, 0.15, and 0.60 in the temperature range T = 300-1100 K. Comparison of the 31P chemical shift between glass and crystalline forms revealed that polymerization of the metaphosphate into tricyclophosphatelike (PO3)3(3-) rings is the dominant structure, ca. 80%, formed by the twofold vertex-joined PO4 groups in the glass. In the Raman study we focused on the prominent polarized band at ca. 1170 cm(-1) which is due to the symmetric breathing mode of the tetrahedral PO4 group. This band was decomposed into a few Gaussian lines. These component lines could be identified using the NMR results: two narrow components are due to PO4 groups in the tricyclophosphatelike rings, which have either a Na or an Al counterion and a third broad component is due to chain-polymerized (PO3(-))n. The variations of the component lines (peak positions, widths, and intensities) with respect to x and T are presented. We derive the shifts of the symmetric breathing mode frequency which are caused by Na or Al counterions, by ring closure, by x > 0, etc. The relative intensities of the narrow and broad components in the 1170-cm(-1) band of the Raman spectra are discussed. The amount of ring-to-chain transformation on addition of Al3+, and as functions of T and x, is derived. Indications for ordering on a next larger scale, derivable from Raman, NMR, and thermodynamics, are compared.