Surface treatment of lead glasses for reducing the leaching of lead

Lead crystal glass was studied in order to establish the effect of prelimin ary treating the surface on concentration profiles of lead in the surface a nd on lead leaching into acetic acid solutions. The surface was treated in two ways: I) by exposure in solutions of acids (acetic acid, hydrochloric a cid), 2) exposing the surface to decomposition products of ammonium chlorid e at the elevated temperature. Both treatments resulted in reducing the lea ching of lead from the surface while the effect of decomposition products o f ammonium chloride was more efficient. The latter treatment also succeeded in extracting lead from deeper layers of glass.