The effect of light rare earths on the chemical durability and weathering of Na2O–CaO–SiO2 glasses

In this paper, the investigation on chemical durability and weathering of soda–lime–silicate glasses containing light rare earths (La, Ce and Nd) prepared with traditional melt-quenching methods was carried out by ICP-AES, optical microscopy, SEM and EDS. The weight losses of different glasses in different attacking media were measured, and the normalized releases were calculated. The results showed that the presence of La, Ce and Nd increased the water resistance of glasses and decreased the normalized releases of silicon. The addition of La and Nd improved the acid and alkaline resistance of glass; however, the effect of Ce was opposite. The results of weathering of glasses agree well with experimental data of chemical durability. Comparing with Nd-dopes glass, white plate crystals on the surfaces of undoped, La-dopes and Ce-doped glass were observed, moreover, isolated pits of 0.5–2.0 μm on the surface of Ce-doped glass appeared.