Application of a new method for the study of surface topography in processes of surface etching and corrosion of industrial glasses, electron emission microscopy

Abstract

The paper describes a new technique, an electron emission microscopic method for structural and topographic surface studies. This has been applied in practice to a series of composite silica glasses, industrially produced on a technical scale, of the type SiO 2 (≌ 72%) + Na 2O (≌ 15%) + CaO (≌ 8%) + MgO (≌4%) + R 2O 3 (≌ 1%), to quartz glass SiO 2 (≌ 100%), and to other amorphous substances of the same kind subjected in the laboratory to stepwise chemical etching (for corrosion analysis), as well as to surfaces subjected to mechanical processing by grinding and polishing and to subsequent chemical processing by etching, followed by polishing. The structural and topographic state of the glass plate surfaces was analysed, and the kinetics of the processes occuring on the surface and in near-surface layers were studied during the action of chemical factors on corrosion and the formation and variation of the surfaces under laboratory processing and in industrial production. Grain distributions, macro- and microinhomogeneities on the surface and in near-surface layers, and characteristics parameters of surface structure and topology were determined.