An approach to the problem of ionic distribution in liquid silicates

Abstract

Liquid silicates have been treated as analogous to conventional polymers with a distribution of molecular weights which is governed by considerations of chemical equilibria. Ionic distributions have been calculated as a function of the silica content for several binary systems in regions more basic than the metasilicate, where linear and branched polyionic chains may be considered to predominate. For systems in which the average chain length is sufficiently low or high the distribution may be characterized, to a first approximation, by a single constant the value of which is estimated from activities or independently from the standard free energies of formation of the crystalline silicates. The restriction of ideal mixing is not a condition of the theory, although it is required that the activity coefficients of the silicates vary in a regular manner with increasing size. Limitations and some consequences of the simple theory have been discussed.