Introduction.

It seems paradoxical that a material so extensively used in various applications should still have open questions concerning its internal structure. However, while there is general agreement on the gross features of the interplay between glass composition and structure in oxide glasses, even for one-component glasses like SiO₂ or B₂O₃ there are still open questions on how in detail their basic building blocks are organized to form the bulk of the vitreous material. Clearly the situation is even more complicated in multi-component glasses.

On the following pages a short introduction to some fundamental concepts related to the glass structure in general and to the structure of some special glass systems is given:

1. The random network.
2. Bridging and non-bridging oxygens.
3. Silica glass.
4. Alkali silicate glasses.
5. Boron oxide glass.
6. Alkali borate glasses and the Krogh-Moe model.
7. Alkali borosilicate glasses.

Current fields of research - glasses.

Research Group Solid State Spectroscopy and Magnetochemistry in Material Science.