Alkali and alkaline-earth ion vibrations in solvent cages, coordination compounds, glasses and related systems

Alkali metal ion—oxygen donor solvent cages as well as coordination compounds, alkali metal oxide glasses and oxyanion salts of alkali metals exhibit low-frequency bands in the infrared spectrum characteristic of the cation—oxygen polyhedra. Similar bands are seen with nitrogen donors. Alkaline earth ions also show such absorption bands due to quantised vibration of cations. These bands not only provide a means of establishing the nature of cation coordination in diverse systems, but also serve as probes to examine ion-solvent interactions.