High-Energy X-ray Diffraction from Aluminosilicate Liquids

M. C. Wilding, C. J. Benmore*, J. K. R. Weber

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Containerless high energy X-ray diffraction measurements have been performed on molten Al2O3-SiO2 as a function of composition. The data show a strong distortion of the SiO4 tetrahedral units and a breakdown of intermediate range order as alumina is added. For silica-rich compositions, the X-ray pair distribution functions are consistent with the presence of 4-fold oxygen triclusters predicted by molecular dynamics simulations, where these liquids exhibit relatively high viscosities compared to other binary silicates. For higher alumina content liquids, the average cation-oxygen coordination number gradually increases with increasing Al2O3 content, but the pair distribution functions change very little with composition, suggesting the increased presence of disordered AlOn (n = 4,5,6) polyhedra are associated with low viscosity melts. A comparison of the liquid and glassy X-ray pair distributions functions at the alumina-rich mullite composition indicate a significant distortion of the polyhedra in the melt, suggesting structural changes are temperature dependent.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5742-5746
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry B
Volume114
Issue number17
Early online date14 Apr 2010
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06 May 2010

Keywords

  • MELTS
  • SCATTERING
  • ALUMINA
  • HIGH-TEMPERATURE
  • COMPUTER-SIMULATION
  • SYSTEM
  • SIO2-AL2O3 GLASSES
  • SILICATE
  • DYNAMICS
  • DENSITIES

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