From: "Andreas Derwahl" 
To: "Atm-US \(E-mail\)" 
Reply-To: "Andreas Derwahl" 


> So, what's the magic juice and the meaning of the undefined words
"chemically primed" and "activation"?   If we discover
this, we don't need a
kiln to build ribbed mirrors.

. . . Richard


just guessing here: the bonding solution could be some form of water-glass,
an aqueous solution of alkali-silicate (the stuff that's used for that
"chemical garden" experiment).

Priming and activating would then maybe mean to threat the glass surface
with a strong, possibly oxidising acid to get rid of any fatty residues and
other organic junk sticking to the surface and to protonate (stick H+ ions
to) the surface oxygen atoms. Prepared in that way they can hopefully
polymerise with the silicate ions and they in turn with each other and the
other surface.

But I could be completely wrong...

Andreas

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