  Like many others, silicate solids dissolve when placed in contact with water.
In a given aqueous environment, the dissolution rate depends highly on the
composition and the structure of the solid, and can span several orders of
magnitude. Although the kinetics of dissolution depends on the complexities of
both the dissolving solid and the solvent, a clear understanding of which
critical structural descriptors of the solid control its dissolution rate is
lacking. Through pioneering dissolution experiments and atomistic simulations,
we correlate the dissolution rates - ranging over four orders of magnitude - of
a selection of silicate glasses and crystals, to the number of chemical
topological constraints acting between the atoms of the dissolving solid. The
number of such constraints serves as an indicator of the effective activation
energy, which arises from steric effects, and prevents the network from
reorganizing locally to accommodate intermediate units forming over the course
of the dissolution.
