Practical IR extinction coefficients of water in soda lime aluminosilicate glasses determined by nuclear reaction analysis

•The absolute water concentration was evaluated for glasses by NRA.•The water concentration is determination for soda lime aluminosilicate glasses.•The IR practical extinction coefficient of water is determined for glasses.•The practical extinction coefficient of water increases with decreasing NBO/T ratio.

Infrared absorption spectroscopy (IR) is widely used to determine the water content in glasses, whereas determination of the practical extinction coefficient is necessary to deduce the absolute water concentration of glasses on the basis of Beer–Lambert law. On the basis of the nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) data, the IR practical extinction coefficient of water was successfully determined for the glasses with different levels of Al contents. Whereas the two-band method is well known to determine the water concentration in alkali lime silica glasses, we show that the single-band procedure with a practical absorption coefficient is suitable for the determination of the water concentration in soda lime aluminosilicate glasses containing substantial amounts of Al content. A good correlation is confirmed between the non bridging oxygens/tetrahedral cations (NBO/T) ratio and the practical extinction coefficient of water in soda lime aluminosilicate glasses with identical network-modifying cations.