Surface structure of glass surfaces treated with the new frosting paste

The paper is concerned with an investigation using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of morphologies of frosted glass surfaces produced by using a new frosting paste. The new paste produces its effect by the physical process of surface ionic exchange and does not contain hydrofluoric acid or its compounds. The frosting process occurs at a temperature similar to 300 degrees C and is characterized by the appearance of a system of microblocks (similar to 50-150 mu m in size) and microcracks (similar to 100-200 nm wide) at the glass surface. The microblock boundaries are essentially smooth and the front surfaces of the blocks are smooth. The surface morphology after the metal deposition on frosted glass carried out by chemical reduction in solution is also demonstrated. In particular, silver deposition was carried out by the chemical reduction of Ag+ to metallic Ag using a silvering solution based on ammoniac silver complexes in the presence of glucose as a reducing agent. Micrographs of the surface structures obtained with chemical etching and Sand blasting are compared in this paper with those of the structures formed diving frosting by the new frosting paste. This comparison indicates that the glass surface morphology after glass frosting with the new glass frosting paste differs substantially from that obtained with well known chemical etching and sand blasting processes.