Packing as a probe of structure in alkaline earth glass systems

Packing is an intrinsic property of glass, defined as the ratio of ionic volume to molar volume, and is a useful parameter for analyzing structural changes with composition. Alkali based glasses show two trends in packing, one dominated by the oxygen covalent network for the small ions, Li and Na, and one ionically dominated by the metal cations for the large, K, Rb and Cs cases [S. Giri, C. Gaebler, J. Helmus, M. Affatigato, S.A. Feller, J. Non-Cryst. Solids 347 (2004) 87]. We have found that alkaline earth glasses do not display these behaviors, and in this paper we determined the packing fractions of these glasses and compared them with the alkali case. Further, we considered the structural implications of the packing trends.