Polymer mass distribution in silicate glasses

The polymer mass distribution in silicate melts and glasses in still an active subject of investigation. This paper contains first a short review of the methods developed recently for its theoretical calculation and some of the results obtained by different authors, including the present ones, for the melts of the Na₂O---CaO---SiO₂ system. Experimental methods and data obtained recently are also presented. Special attention is given to liquid chromatography and to potentiometry, applied by the authors to polymer mass distribution measurements. In section 5 the papers which evidenced the influence of the polymer mass distribution in melts on glass properties are quoted.