Some Features of Leaching of Two-Phase Alkali Borosilicate Glass Containing PbO

The paper reports the results of a comparative investigation into the leaching kinetics of two-phase alkali borosilicate glasses containing lead oxide in 3 M HCl solution at 100°C and the glasses free from lead oxide. It is revealed that the mechanisms of leaching of the studied glasses exhibit a common feature which resides in the fact that the temporary precipitation of the products of dissolution of the glass components within the leached layer occurs as an intermediate stage of the glass leaching. Unlike glasses free from PbO, the precipitation within the porous layer of a leached lead-containing glass is observed visually, and the presence of crystalline boron-containing precipitates in this layer is confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction analysis. Compared to glasses prepared from two-phase alkali borosilicate glasses free from PbO, the porous glasses produced from two-phase glasses containing PbO are characterized by considerably smaller sizes of micropores and their larger specific surface at the same total porosity.