Direct 17O NMR experimental evidence for Al-NBO bonds in Si-rich and highly polymerized aluminosilicate glasses

Abstract

By using solid-state 17O NMR spectroscopy, we provide the first direct experimental evidence for bonds between Al and non-bridging oxygen (NBO) ions in aluminosilicate glasses based on rare-earth (RE) elements, where RE = {Lu, Sc, Y}. The presence of ∼10% Al-NBO moieties out of all NBO species holds regardless of the precise glass composition, at odds with the conventional structural view that Al-NBO bonds are absent in highly polymerized and Si-rich aluminosilicate glass networks.