The mechanochemical wear of multicomponent glasses was studied under controlled humidity conditions using a reciprocating ball-on-flat tribometer. For dry conditions, the surfaces were extensively damaged by scratching for all of the glasses, while for humid conditions the wear behavior varied with the glass composition suggesting a chemical effect on scratch behaviors of glass surfaces. The wear of soda lime silica (also called sodium calcium silicate) glass was suppressed with increasing humidity, while the borosilicate and barium boroaluminosilicate glasses showed an increase in wear volume with increasing humidity. The unique humidity dependence of the observed mechanochemical wear of soda lime silica glass supports the hypothesis that hydronium ion formation in the sodium-leached sites of the soda lime glass enhances its wear resistance.

The nanowear tests of monocrystalline silicon against a SiO2 microsphere were performed using an atomic force microscope in air as a function of relative humidity (RH=0%-90%) and in liquid water at a contact pressure of about 1.20 GPa. The experimental results indicated that RH played an important role in the nanowear of the Si/SiO2 interface. In dry air, a hillock-like wear scar with a height of ∼0.4 nm was formed on the silicon surface. However, with the increase of RH, the wear depth on the silicon surface first increased to a maximum value of ∼14 nm at 50% RH and then decreased below the detection limit at RH above 85% or in water. The transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that the serious wear on the silicon surface at low and medium RHs occurred without subsurface damage, indicating that the wear was due to tribochemical reactions between the Si substrate and the SiO2 counter surface, rather than mechanical damages. The RH dependence of the tribochemical wear could be explained with a model involving the formation of "Si-O-Si" chemical bonds (bridges) between two solid surfaces. The suppression of tribochemical wear at high RHs or in liquid water might be attributed to the fact that the thickness of the interfacial water layer is thick enough to prevent the solid surfaces from making chemical bridges. The results may help us understand the nanowear mechanism of silicon that is an important material for dynamic microelectromechanical systems.

It is generally well known that not only the sodium itself, but also the non-bridging oxygen (NBO) sites associated with sodium ions are largely responsible for the surface reactivity of soda-lime-silica (SLS) glass. Thermal poling can modify the distribution of sodium in the subsurface region. In this work, a commercial SLS float glass was thermally poled using nonblocking electrodes in air. The Na + -depleted anode surface and the Na + -gradient cathode surface were characterized using a variety of methods to find the compositional, structural and morphological effects of thermal poling. Of particular significance is the use of nondestructive vibrational spectroscopy methods, which can lead to new and improved understanding of water interactions with sodium and its sites in the glass. It was found that during thermal poling, the Na + -depleted glass network on the anode side undergoes condensation reactions of NBO sites accompanied by the increase in concentrations of silanol (SiOH) groups and molecular water species. In contrast, silanol and water species do not increase and the silicate network change is negligible in the Na + -gradient cathode side. Vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy analysis revealed the difference in distributions of hydrous species in the Na + -depleted and Na + -gradient surfaces. The structural information of the thermally-poled surfaces provides critical insights needed to understand the mechanical and mechanochemical properties of the Na + -concentration modified SLS glass surfaces reported in the Part 2 companion paper.