Using absorption spectroscopy as a non-destructive tool for the study of silver-staining in glass: An operational flowchart to assign the technology parameters

There is a need to have a better understanding of the link between the recorded optical spectrum and the technology parameters of silver-staining. First, we have studied a collection of samples with known fabrication conditions. A benchmarking between the selected optical based non-destructive and destructive chemical-based methods, allowed us identifying the optical measures that match with the material properties. The latter include the penetration depth, the generated particle sizes and distributions. Also, the impact of the composition of the silver stain mixture, the absence or presence of a metal tin layer coating at the surface and the ionic iron con-centrations in the glass matrix were comprised. This research resulted in a flowchart scheme allowing us to give clues on the silver-staining technology via non-destructive means. Secondly, we explored the expandability of the proposed flow towards other glass families and concluded that it could hold for soda-lime, high-lime-low-alkali, and potash glass.