Modifier constraints in alkali ultraphosphate glasses

In applying the recently introduced concept of cationic constraint strength [J. Chem. Phys. 140, 214501 (2014)] to bond constraint theory (BCT) of binary phosphate glasses in the ultraphosphate region of xR2O-(1-x)P2O5 (with x ≤ 0.5 and R = {Li, Na, Cs}), we demonstrate that a fundamental limitation of BCT can be overcome. The modifiers are considered to exist in either “isolated” or “crosslinking” sites, in line with the so-called modifier sub-network [J. Chem. Phys. 140, 154501 (2014)] and each site is associated with a certain number of constraints. We estimate the compositional dependence of the modifier sites and then use this to calculate the glass transition temperature as a function of chemical composition. A statistical distribution of sites achieves a remarkable agreement with experimental data for all tested glasses and greatly improves upon previously published work.