Water–Electrolyte Glass-Forming Systems: A Review

Abstract

Water–electrolyte systems comprising aqueous solutions of nitrates, iodates, sulfates, acetates, orthophosphates, chlorides, and fluorides of Group I–III metals, transition metals, and lanthanides were studied. Studies of glass formation in the system Al₂(SO₄)₃–H₂O serve as an example to give an idea of the original method for studying water–electrolyte glass-forming solutions and glasses developed at the Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, enabling one to predict their structures. This investigation method and analysis of experimental data have no analogues either in Russia or abroad. The results obtained were used to elucidate general glass formation trends in various water–electrolyte systems. We were the first to prove a polymeric structure of glass-forming compositions in some water–electrolyte systems. We were also the first to combine the glasses of water–electrolyte systems in a special class of glasses that are hydrogen-bonded polymeric items.