17O nuclear magnetic resonance study of Na2O–P2O5 glasses

Abstract The preparation and structural investigation of 17O-enriched xNa2O–(100−x)P2O5 glasses (46.5⩽x⩽62.8) by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is described. Enriched phosphoric acid was prepared by hydrolysis of PCl5 with 17O-enriched water and neutralized with sodium carbonate. The sodium metaphosphate was then melted at 800 °C for 15 h and quenched. Polyphosphate and ultraphosphate glass compositions were prepared by remelting the metaphosphate with sodium carbonate and phosphorus pentoxide, respectively. 31P magic angle sample spinning (MAS) NMR was used to determine the Na2O/P2O5 content in the glasses. 17O NMR spectra (quadrupole echo for non-rotating samples and multiple-quantum excitation for rotating samples (MQMAS)) show two oxygen sites in the samples with large quadrupolar coupling constants (4.7 and 7.7 MHz), in accordance with the high phosphorus electronegativity. According to the correlation of 17O quadrupolar constants with bond ionicity, these two components are attributed to bridging P–O–P and non-bridging P–O⋯Na oxygens. The average P–O–P bond angle is estimated with the quadrupolar asymmetry derived from the fit of the static echo spectra. The MQMAS spectrum shows a distribution of non-bridging oxygen chemical shifts, attributed to a variation of bond length and angle.