Research on the surfaces of glasses is a highly important area because of the many physical and chemical processes that occur on the surface. 1-7 In particular, reactive processes, such as glass dissolution and crack/flaw generation/propagation, are themselves affected by surface chemistry and structure, including defect state(s). Consequently, study 8-19 of surface structures has received some intensive attention in both academic and industrial areas; specifically, in the flat panel display industry, where surface charge imbalances can directly impact the performance of glass substrates and can even result in the ultimate failure of completed panel devices. These phenomena have become more

The study of the bond breaking and formation processes, that is, the chemical reaction, in the Si–O network structure in liquid alkali silicates at temperatures around or higher than the glass‐transition temperature is important for understanding kinetic processes such as the structural relaxation of the network, viscous flow, and diffusion of the network former ions. Herein, novel methods for analyzing the reactions in a molecular‐dynamics‐modeled liquid Na2SiO3 were used to confirm the following results: (a) the substitutional reactions (in which a nonbridging O ion of a Si–O chain or a SiO4 tetrahedron attacks the Si ion of another chain from backside of a bridging O ion, which acts as the leaving group, and the bridging O leaves the Si ion) primarily occur in the Si–O network of liquid Na2SiO3; and (b) The abundance ratio of Qn species can be quantitatively reproduced by the reaction rate.