Structure investigations of ultraphosphate glasses with some water content Original Research Article

Phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) is a good glass-forming oxide, but highly hygroscopic. Therefore, glasses of the binary phosphate systems have to be melted in a closed system. Glasses in the systems P2O5–H2O and P2O5–D2O (up to 15 mol% H2O or D2O) and glasses with low metal oxide content (up to 12 mol%) were melted. The water as well as the deuterium oxide (D2O) clearly modifies the glass structure. They act very similar to the metal oxides.