Effect of soil pH on the degradation of silicate glasses

This paper reports the research on the physical-chemical response of silicate glasses subjected to the action of three natural soils types: acidic, neutral, and basic. The main goal of the study was to characterize the corrosion mechanisms acting upon glasses formulated with chemical compositions that are commonly found in historical glasses through an accelerated aging test that replicates natural burial. Resulting data showed a distinct and recognizable response of each glass type, with pH as the key variable for glass corrosion. Results can be of great significance to historical glass studies, especially in choosing suitable conservation strategies for archeological findings.The author kindly thanks Dr. P. Garcıa (Complutense University, Madrid) for providing soil samples and their characterization data, and to CERVITRUM Research group (CCHS-CSIC) for their help during the experiment. This work has been partially funded by the Fundac~ao do Ministerio de Ci^encia e Tecnologia de Portugal (Project ref. UID/EAT/00729/2013 and Post-doctoral grant ref. SFRH/ BPD/108403/2015) and GEOMATERIALES 2-CM Program Ref. S2013/MIT-2914. Professional support from Techno-Heritage (Network on Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage) is also acknowledged.Peer Reviewe