HF etching effect on sandblasted soda-lime glass properties

Our objective in this work is to study the HF etching chemical treatment effect on the mechanical and optical properties of soda-lime glass eroded with 200 g fixed sand mass. We followed the evolution of these properties in relation to the chemical attack duration.The results show a clear improvement of the measured properties. The strength of the eroded samples is 44.23 ± 0.91 MPa. It increases up to 57.73 ± 1.76 MPa after 15 min of treatment and reaches 181.43 ± 23.69 MPa after 1 h. This last value is much higher than the as received glass strength (117.5 ± 10.48 MPa). The optical transmission of the eroded samples is about 18.5%. During the first 2 min of the chemical treatment, an important drop of the optical transmission (12%) was observed. However, improvement of the transmission was achieved for longer chemical treatment durations. After 8 h of treatment, the optical transmission increases up to 57%. Microscopic observations show that the HF attack causes the opening and the blunting of the surface cracks. In general, the surface state is improved during the chemical treatment.