A Review of the Chemical Resistance of Glass

Introduction

The reaction between glass and water and various reagents under various conditions and the dependence of these reactions on the glass composition as well as on the nature of the reagents have been the subject of various studies during the last 80 years. Although the reaction mechanism is still not clearly understood, some workers studied the attack of water on glass, and suggested that it was merely a solution process of glass in water. Several workers have also emphasized on the idea of adsorption and then absorption of water into the glass followed by subsequent hydrolysis or decomposition of the glass. For the last 30 years, the experimental results on action of water on glass have been interpreted by some authors from a physical point of view. Ion exchange controlled by diffusion process was suggested as the mechanism of the reaction. However, most of the results have been shown to be difficult to interpret in terms of the above theory.