DURABILITY OF FLUORIDE GLASSES IN WATER

The durability of eight fluoride glasses was tested in liquid water from 25-degrees to 75-degrees-C. The studies were done by first growing a corrosion layer and then examining structure and chemistry in cross section with an optical microscope and an electron microprobe. In this way the details of the corrosion behavior could be directly determined. The results indicate that the corrosion process proceeds by a moving boundary, whose penetration rate is diffusion limited.