Comment on Effect of BO4 and FeO4 Structural Units on Conduction Mechanism of Iron Borosilicate Glasses

Recently, El-Damrawi et al. (Silicon 13:4025-4031, 2021) reported the Effect of BO4 and FeO4 Structural Units on Conduction Mechanism of Iron Borosilicate glasses using several complementary techniques, where the study involving energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) is erroneous and scientifically unacceptable. They inferred from EDAX that the Fe L X-ray lines arising from Fe3+ situated at the octahedral site and K X-ray lines are due to Fe2+ situated at tetrahedral sites, which is incorrect and not based on factual experimental observation. In its present form, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 (original Figs. 7-10 in the main paper (El-Damrawi et al. in Silicon 13:4025-4031, 2021)) violets the basic understanding of the EDAX technique, portraying the feature of the technique other than the actual possible scientific outcome.

Automated summary

El-Damrawi et al. investigated the effect of BO4 and FeO4 structural units on the conduction mechanism of iron borosilicate glasses using various techniques. However, their use of energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) was erroneous and not based on factual experimental observation.