ToF-SIMS analysis for leaching studies of potash-lime-silica glass

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is a valuable tool to study compositional variations of glass, giving useful information concerning provenance, effects of the conservation environment, of weathering or leaching processes and about the compositional differences between the corroded layer and the bulk as a function of depth. In spite of that the insulating properties of glass, the surface roughness and the parameters used for the measurements can lead to possible misinterpretations of the results; in this paper these difficulties are discussed, in order to better interpret the analyses performed on leached glass. ToF-SIMS data are influenced by strong matrix effects making quantification difficult; for this reason the quantitative composition and surface morphology of the leached layer were additionally investigated with scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX).