Some investigations concerning the structure of ultraphosphates

Abstract

Controlled hydrolytic degradation of ultraphosphate glasses at their branching sites has indicated that these compounds, with a ratio of univalent-cation to phosphorus between 0·7–1·0, consist of random arrangements of trimetaphosphate rings, polyphosphate chains, and branched chains. No ring structures larger than trimetaphosphate have been found to exist in any of the ultraphosphates studied.

The most likely overall average structures have been determined for a series of ultraphosphate compositions from consideration of the unipositive cation to phosphorus ratio, the average chain-lengths of the degraded polyphosphate chains, and the amounts of trimetaphosphate rings present. The results indicate that as the cation to phosphorus ratio decreases an increasing number of P–O–P linkages must appear in which the phosphorus atoms are in adjacent trimetaphosphate rings.

Variations of the conditions of preparation showed that, for the range of compounds studied, a slight variation in the conditions used in a preparation caused very little difference in the nature of the product obtained.