Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
The alkali-borosilicate (ABS) system provides the basis for a wide variety of commercially important products among which are the nuclear waste glasses. Although a large number of investigations have been undertaken in the last five years, the corrosion mechanisms of the ABS glasses have not been characterized nearly as well as for the soda-lime-silicate (NCS) glasses commonly used for containers. It is well known that the corrosion of the latter glasses involves ion exchange, network dissolution, and precipitation mechanisms resulting in the development of one of five types of surface films. In the present paper we compare the corrosion behavior to the ABS and NCS glasses and discuss our current understanding of ABS glass corrosion in terms of mechanisms, kinetics, surface film formation and thermodynamics.