Free volumes in glasses and their relation to compressibilities - art. no.184202

Because of the disordered structure, glass has many voids in which no atoms exist. This is characterized by the structural-free volume. It is expected that the larger the structural-free volume, the larger would be the compre ssibility. This is verified for some alkali silicate and silver berate glas ses; i.e., both the structural-free volume and the compressibility decrease monotonously with increasing alkali or silver content. Also found is that the compressibility is different for different alkali species. This implies the presence of another free volume that originates from the atoms in them selves. The atomic-free volume is defined for s-electron metals as alkalis and is related to the compressibility.