Glass Coating Removal by Atmospheric Oxygen Plasma

Coatings such as Cr, Ni, Ti, and SiO2/SnO2 on solar-control and low-emissivity (low-E) glasses are commonly used in the energy efficient glass windows. However, coloring in the re-manufactured glass panels using recycled window glasses resulting from the coatings reduces the glass transparency significantly. Traditional ways to remove coatings by manual wheels and pneumatic removal machines are labor intense and slow processes. In this study a new way to remove the coatings on recycled coated glasses was investigated. The Ultra Violet/Visible/Infrared (UV/VIS/IR) spectra and Secondary Electron Microscope (SEM) pictures were taken before and after 30s. atmospheric pressure oxygen plasma treatments. It was confirmed that the atmospheric oxygen plasma treatment is a fast, efficient, and low pollution way to remove the coatings before the remanufacture of recycled glasses. Other than the physical sputtering off the coatings from the plasma, there are many excited oxygen species in the plasma which effectively react to the coating and the products are then removed.