Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2011
The diffusion of water into silica glass is modeled to result from the diffusion of molecular water into the glass and its reaction with the silicon-oxygen network to form SiOH groups. Equations for this diffusion-reaction mechanism are presented and compared with experimental diffusion profiles. At temperatures above about 500 °C the reaction goes to equilibrium, but at lower temperatures it does not, leading to a time dependence of the concentration of surface-reacted OH groups and of their apparent diffusion coefficient. At higher temperatures, the OH groups are nearly immobile, but diffuse far enough to sample neighboring OH groups, leading to a bimolecular reverse reaction. At lower temperatures only OH pairs react, giving a first-order reaction. When water tagged with O18 diffuses into silica, the O18 exchanges with O16 in the silicon-oxygen network of the glass. This process is also controlled by the rate of diffusion of molecular water into the glass, and the rate of O18-O16 exchange. This diffusion-reaction mechanism gives a unified description of the diffusion of water in silica glass from 160 °C to 1200 °C at least.
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