Synthesis and characterization of methylammonium phosphates as crystalline approximants for anhydrous, low melting phosphate glasses.

Low-melting methylammonium phosphate glasses are synthesized from crystalline starting agents. To this end crystalline tris(methylammonium) cyclotriphosphate [CH 3 NH 3 ] 3 P 3 O 9 , was synthesized by a novel and simple synthesis route from P 4 O 10 and N -methylformamide. It, undergoes an irreversible phase transition to methylammonium catena -polyphosphate [CH 3 NH 3 ]PO 3 . The crystal structure of the catena -polyphosphate was solved and refined from X-ray powder diffraction data by the Rietveld method using constraints obtained by solid-state 31 P and 1 H NMR spectroscopy. This compound crystallizes in a triclinic space group with a = 13.2236(9), b = 7.8924(6), c = 4.6553(2) Å, α = 91.068(4), β = 87.840(5) and γ = 106.550(3)°. Quantum chemical calculations confirm that the obtained structure lies at an energetic minimum. Finally the reaction of tris(methylammonium) cyclotriphosphate and P 4 O 10 into methylammonium phosphate glass is presented. The synthesized, water-free phosphate glass shows a very low glass transition temperature T g of 33 °C, which was verified by dynamic scanning calorimetry and NMR. The chain-like crystal structure of the high-temperature methylammoniumphosphate [CH 3 NH 3 ]PO 3 serves as an approximation for the short-range order of the glass.