STRUCTURE AND CATION SENSITIVITY OF SILICATE-GLASSES - A REVIEW

Silicate glasses of different compositions can be used as materials fo r ion sensitive electrodes. We have investigated glasses of the system s Na2O-SiO2, Na2O-RO-SiO2 (R = Ba, Sr, Ca, Mg, Be, Cd, Zn), and Na2O-R (2)O(3)-SiO2 (R = Ga, Al, B) in a wide composition range to find relat ionships between the electrochemical properties (electrode sensitivite s and selectivities) and the microstructures of the compact glasses an d their hydrated layers. Various NMR spectroscopic techniques have bee n used (MAS, CP-MAS, CRAMPS, SATRAS, REDOR) for probing the glass stru cture. Principal Component Analysis was found to be useful to test pos sible correlations between the composition, the glass structure parame ters and electrode properties.