In-situ monitoring of seeded and unseeded stage III corrosion using Raman spectroscopy

Stage III glass dissolution, the occasionally observed tendency for accelerated aqueous corrosion after extensive time spent at low reaction rates, is a major area of technical uncertainty in long-term glass performance modeling for vitreous nuclear waste forms. Stage III dissolution behavior is thought to be caused by the precipitation of zeolite phases that lower the activity of the rate-controlling orthosilicic acid ion and cause the acceleration of glass dissolution. The uncertainty lies mainly in a poor understanding of the growth kinetics of these key crystalline phases. It is particularly important to understand the impact of temperature and pH conditions on Stage III behavior. Accurate analysis of this phenomenon is complicated by the typically very long (e.g., years), and variable length of the induction period preceding the onset of Stage III behavior. In this study of a high-sodium aluminoborosilicate glass, we demonstrate the ability to initiate the onset of Stage III behavior in a controllable fashion so as to both reduce the time delay of the incubation period, and to also be able to initiate Stage III dissolution in controlled conditions. In this case, we demonstrate that Stage III glass corrosion behavior is possible at 70 °C, a lower temperature than previously observed (90 °C), even in an unseeded experiment. We confirm, through a comparison study, that seeded and unseeded Stage III corrosion rates are equivalent. This enables wide-scale testing of Stage III corrosion rates for many glass compositions in relatively short times through this technique. We also report further development of the use of in situ Raman spectroscopy monitoring of boron concentration and pH through simple and chemometric analysis methods.