Characterization of potash-glass corrosion in aqueous solution by ion beam and IR spectroscopy

In this work the corrosion processes of potash-glass surfaces in contact with aqueous solutions were studied using ion beam spectroscopic techniques, optical microscopy (OM) and Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy. In order to follow the corrosion progress these surface studies were combined with the evaluation of the changes taking place in the aqueous solution. In particular, the hydrogen profiles obtained from the attacked surface region of glass were compared with the variation of pH values of the aqueous solutions, in order to extract information about the ion exchange processes. It is shown that pH values may also be a good parameter for studying corrosion kinetics in high humidity conditions. The two tests conditions explored (with and without stirring of the aqueous solution) proved to lead to different surface morphologies associated with different corrosion rates. Stirring results in a more fine grained and uniform morphology of the corrosion products and a higher corrosion rate.