Structural changes between soda-lime silicate glass and melt

Neutron diffraction has been used to study the structure of a glass and melt of composition 75SiO₂-15Na₂O-10CaO. RMC modeling of the neutron and X-ray diffraction data for the glass allowed the determination of the Na and Ca environment. The structure has been investigated at 300K, just below the glass transition at 823 K and in the melt at 1273 K. The short range order does not present important modifications with temperature while significant reorganization appears at the medium range order. These latter changes can be associated with the Si and O pairs and indicate the relaxation of the silicate network. This indicates that the glass formation involved structural rearrangement during cooling.