Novel Structural Behaviour Of Iron In Alkali-Alkaline Earth-Silica Glasses

Iron species in glass are vital to applications such as solar control, and greater understanding of their chemical and structural role is required. Previously, we have studied the effect on Fe ions of increasing Fe2O3 content in soda-lime-silica glasses. Here, we report the effect of base glass composition on distribution, redox, coordination and environment of Fe ions using a multi-technique approach including wet chemical analysis, Mossbauer, ESR and optical spectroscopies. Most previous studies have concentrated on binary alkali or alkaline earth silicate systems, and are of limited value when applied to commercial glass compositions. The ternary alkali-alkaline earth-silica systems reported here model commercial glasses more closely.