The effects of relative humidity and airborne pollutants on the reaction between water and glass: Applications to historic stained glass windows

Hydration of commercial soda-lime glass in environments containing water vapor with or without airborne pollutants (SO;Glasses subject to cracking during hydration, such as many historic stained window glasses, are discussed. For such glass, a linear hydration rate is predicted. High humidity or the presence of airborne pollutants results in an order of magnitude increase in their linear hydration rate. These effects sum to explain most or all of the dramatic increase in the corrosion of historic stained glass observed in Europe during the second half of the twentieth century.;The soda-lime glass used in this study hydrated in liquid water as reported by others in previous work. For hydration in liquid water, the activation energy was found to be 17.4 kCal/Mole (+/...