Since recently industrial use of glass has become very wide, many problems have required a more strict understanding of surface phenomena of glass such as contamination or weathering which have been empirically treated.
In this paper the results of ESCA measurements of carbon on float glass which was formed as the result of contamination and wheathering were reported and its chemical state and origin were discussed.
In carbon 1s spectrum of hexan rinsed float glass, both top and bottom surfaces showed two peaks and there were parts on bottom side which showed the third shoulder peak.
To attribute these peaks, carbon 1s was measured for the fused silica glass, the float glass which were stored in the vessel with good ventilation free from dust and organic vapor in air after removal of surface layer by ionetching, Na
2CO
3 and for CaCO
3.
These two peaks were considered as the result of the contact with CO
2 in atmosphere because same peaks were observed for the float glass stored in air.
In these two peaks the lower binding energy one was attributed to a species arising from absorbed CO
2 on surface silanol sites since its binding energy and intensity change with time were very similar to those of the fused silica glass stored in air.
The higher binding energy peak was assigned to a species like carbonate ion as the results of interaction between CO
2 and hydroxides of Na and Ca on surface since its binding energy agreed with Na
2CO
3 and CaCO
3 and it could not be observed for fused silica glass.
From the results of ESCA measurements of rations, however, the form of this carbonate-like species was considered to be somewhat different from the complete carbonate crystals.
These two peaks increased with time with constant intensity ratio initially but increasing rate of the higher binding energy peak became gradually small. The reason for this was considered that the silanol group increased by the reaction with water in air, whereas the supply of cations to surface tended to be retarded by the formation of cation depleted region under the surface.
The third peak observed on a part of bottom side was considered to be due to the contamination during manufacture since it was always observed on one side of a glass and did not appear on glass stored in air after ionetching.
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