Medium-Range Structural Organization of Phosphorus-Bearing Borosilicate Glasses Revealed by Advanced Solid-State NMR Experiments and MD Simulations: Consequences of B/Si Substitutions.

The short and intermediate range structures of a large series of bioactive borophosphosilicate (BPS) glasses were probed by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Two BPS glass series were designed by gradually substituting SiO2 by B2O3 in the respective phosphosilicate base compositions 24.1Na2O-23.3CaO-48.6SiO2-4.0P2O5 ("S49") and 24.6Na2O-26.7CaO-46.1SiO2-2.6P2O5 ("S46"), the latter constituting the "45S5 Bioglass" utilized for bone grafting applications. The BPS glass networks are built by interconnected SiO4, BO4, and BO3 moieties, whereas P exists mainly as orthophosphate anions, except for a minor network-associated portion involving P-O-Si and P-O-B[4] motifs, whose populations were estimated by heteronuclear 31P{11B} NMR experimentation. The high Na+/Ca2+ contents give fragmented glass networks with large amounts of nonbridging oxygen (NBO) anions. The MD-generated glass models reveal an increasing propensity for NBO accommodation among the network units according to BO4 < SiO4 < BO3 ≪ PO4. The BO4/BO3 intermixing was examined by double-quantum-single-quantum correlation 11B NMR experiments, which evidenced the presence of all three BO3-BO3, BO3-BO4, and BO4-BO4 connectivities, with B[3]-O-B[4] bridges dominating. Notwithstanding that B[4]-O-B[4] linkages are disfavored, both NMR spectroscopy and MD simulations established their presence in these modifier-rich BPS glasses, along with non-negligible B[4]-NBO contacts, at odds with the conventional structural view of borosilicate glasses. We discuss the relative propensities for intermixing of the Si/B/P network formers. Despite the absence of pronounced preferences for Si-O-Si bond formation, the glass models manifest subtle subnanometer-sized structural inhomogeneities, where SiO4 tetrahedra tend to self-associate into small chain/ring motifs embedded in BO3/BO4-dominated domains.