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Inorganic phosphate chemists have normally treated their systems in much the same conventions in drawing structures and placing cations as organic chemists have done. In melts and glasses this is probably justified, but in a solid crystalline state it is well known that placement of cationic functions in structures is an oversimplification. Nevertheless, we shall follow the conventions for convenience, while recognizing that placement of anions and cations is often not a good representation. 

Polyphosphate has been defined in this work as any linear condensed phosphate in which a phosphate, but not necessarily the system containing phosphates, exhibits a condition 1 M2O/P2O5 2, where M is any single or mixed metal with a total equivalency of unity. This definition is required to differentiate a total composition of a system from polyphosphates crystallizing from a melt. 

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