A predictive equation for the refractive indices of silicate melts containing alkali, alkaline earth and aluminium oxides

M. Susa, Y. Kamijo, K. Kusano, R. Kojima

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Refractive indices of multicomponent silicate melts containing alumina have been determined using a high temperature ellipsometer and the data used to propose a predictive equation for the refractive indices of silicate melts. Refractive indices were measured at a wavelength of 632.8 nm over the temperature range 1100-1800 K and the standard deviation of the refractive indices measured was within ±0.0012. The samples studied contained 2-6 components from the oxides SiO2, Li2O, Na2O, K2O, MgO, CaO and Al2O3, where the mole fraction of SiO2 was at least 0.4 and the mole fraction of Al 2O3 was smaller than or equal to the sum of those of alkali (R2O) and/or alkaline earth oxides (RO). Assuming that the structure of the aluminosilicate melts consists of only three kinds of chemical bond, i.e. Si-BO (BO: bridging oxygen), Al-BO with a charge compensating cation and Si-NBO (NBO: nonbridging oxygen) with a charge compensating cation, a predictive equation for the refractive index of the aluminosilicate melts is proposed to be n=aSi-BOnSi-BO+Σb Si-NBO(Ri)nSi-NBO(Ri)+ΣcAl-BO(Ri)n Al-BO(Ri) where aSi-BO, bSi-BO(Ri) and C Al-BO(Ri) are, respectively, the numbers of Si-BO, Si-NBO and Al-BO bonds, where (Ri) represents the charge compensating ion for Si-NBO and Al-BO bonds (either an Ri2O or an RiO oxide). Parameters nsi-BO, nsi-NBO(Ri) and nAl-BO(Ri) are, respectively, values to express refractive indices per mole of Si-BO, Si-NBO and Al-BO bonds and have been determined as functions of temperature from the measured values of refractive index. It has been found that this equation can predict refractive index values with small error of ±0.65 % even in six component silicate melts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)55-61
Number of pages7
JournalGlass Technology
Volume46
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2005 Apr
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ceramics and Composites

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