Glass has been used in widespread applications within several sectors since ancient times and it has been systematically studied under different perspectives. However, its thermodynamic properties and the variety of its compositions, several aspects related to its durability and its alteration mechanisms remain still open to debate. This literature review presents an overview of the most relevant studies on glass corrosion and the interaction between glass and the environment. The review aims to achieve two objectives. On one hand, it aims to highlight how far research on glass corrosion has come by studying model systems created in the laboratory to simulate different alteration conditions and glass compositions. On the other, it seeks to point out what are the critical aspects that still need to be investigated and how the study of ancient, altered glass can add to the results obtained in laboratory models. The review intends also to demonstrate how advanced analytical techniques commonly used to study modern and technical glass can be applied to investigate corrosion marks on ancient samples.

The nucleation and growth mechanism of exchange-biased magnetically contrasted highly crystallized and perfectly epitaxied Fe₃O₄–CoO nanoaggregates was investigated using local probe analysis, namely ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer and L_2,3 Co XMCD spectroscopies, and advanced magnetometry. The granular nanocomposites were produced by a two-step chemical route. Spinel iron oxide nanoparticles were first synthesised by forced hydrolysis of iron acetate in a polyol and then used as seeds for rock-salt cobalt monoxide nanocrystalline growth. In one case, this crystallochemical step is carried out by separating the seeds, washing and drying them before mixing them in a fresh polyol solution of cobalt precursors. In another case, it is conducted by introducing, directly in the seed reaction solution, the cobalt precursors in the same Fe/Co nominal atomic ratio. It appears that the composite formation proceeds differently in the two cases. It is driven, in the ex situ route, by Co²⁺ cation diffusion into the spinel lattice leading to the formation of Co_xFe_3−xO₄ core single crystals around which CoO nanocrystals start growing. Conversely, in the in situ route, it is driven by Co²⁺ cation reactivity with unreacted dissolved Fe³⁺, conducted to the coating of the preformed Fe₃O₄ cores by a CoFe₂O₄-like thin interlayer, itself decorated by outer CoO nanocrystals. These reaction schemes are well confirmed by magnetometry experiments. The low-temperature magnetic properties of the produced composites are consistent with the establishment of an exchange-bias feature into hard-magnet@antiferromagnet and soft-magnet@hard-magnet@antiferromagnet structures, respectively.

Hetero-nanostructures based on magnetic contrast oxides have been prepared as highly dense nanoconsolidates. Cobalt ferrite-cobalt oxide core-shell type nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by seed mediated growth in polyol and subsequently consolidated by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) at 500 °C for a few minutes while applying a uniaxial pressure of 100 MPa. It is interesting to note that the exchange bias feature observed in the core-shell NPs is reproduced in their ceramic counterparts, or even attenuated. A systematic structural characterization was then carried out to elucidate the decrease in the exchange magnetic field, involving mainly advanced X-ray diffraction, zero-field and in-field ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectrometry, magnetic measurements and electron microscopy.

Ancient glass objects typically show distinctive effects of deterioration as a result of environmentally induced physicochemical transformations of their surface over time. Iridescence is one of the distinctive signatures of aging that is most commonly found on excavated glass. In this work, we present an ancient glass fragment that exhibits structural color through surface weathering resulting in iridescent patinas caused by silica reprecipitation in nanoscale lamellae. This archaeological artifact reveals an unusual hierarchically assembled photonic crystal with extremely ordered nanoscale domains, high spectral selectivity, and reflectivity (~90%), that collectively behaves like a gold mirror. Optical characterization paired with nanoscale elemental analysis further underscores the high quality of this structure providing a window into this sophisticated natural photonic crystal assembled by time.