Chemical mechanical glass polishing with cerium oxide: Effect of selected physico-chemical characteristics on polishing efficiency

• Effective glass-polishing powders were prepared by annealing from cerium carbonate.
• Properties of polishing powders are governed mainly by the annealing temperature.
• Cerium oxides annealed at 700 °C and above exhibited a good polishing efficiency.
• Correlations were found between the removal rate, crystallinity and Ce(III) content.

Cerium oxide with an excellent glass polishing efficiency was prepared by annealing carbonate or oxalate precursors. The temperature of calcination was identified as a critical parameter that governs the key properties, including the polishing efficiency, of the polishing powders; conversely, the time of calcination appears to be less important. Only the cerium oxides prepared at temperatures above 700 °C exhibited good glass polishing capabilities in terms of both the material removal rate and the quality of the polished surface; the maximum polishing efficiency was produced by the samples annealed at 1050 °C. Polishing powders were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), advanced microscopic techniques (SEM, TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and other techniques. Detailed XRD and microscopic investigations revealed a strong correlation between the crystallinity of cerium oxide and its polishing efficiency, which is consistent with the mechanical effect of the polishing mechanism. However, XPS measurements suggest that the chemical characteristics, namely the presence of the Ce3+ ions, also play an important role in glass polishing and planarization. Both mechanical and chemical contributions to the polishing process are influenced by the calcination temperature.