Alkali-Niobate aluminosilicate glasses: Structure and properties

K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) based ceramics are considered optimal candidates to replace the toxic Pb-based piezoelectric materials; nonetheless, they are quite difficult to process. Therefore, obtaining an efficient glass-ceramic (GC) will have several advantages in lead-free piezoelectric production. The first step to developing advantageous functional GCs is to determine an adequate glass matrix and the network connectivity of the different structural entities depending on the bulk chemistry. Here, we investigated the structural variations occurring in aluminosilicate systems having Na2O/Al2O3 molar ratios from 1 to 5.7 upon the addition of KNN (0.4 up to 30 mol%) to understand how the bulk composition influences KNN incorporation and the properties of the glasses.