Atomic surface of quartz glass induced by photocatalytic green chemical mechanical polishing using the developed SiO2@TiO2 core-shell slurry

Yuanhang Fan; Zhenyu Zhang; Jiaxin Yu; Xingqiao Deng; Chunjing Shi; Hongxiu Zhou; Fanning Meng; Junyuan Feng

doi:10.1039/d3na00991b

Atomic surface of quartz glass induced by photocatalytic green chemical mechanical polishing using the developed SiO₂@TiO₂ core-shell slurry

Nanoscale Adv. 2023 Dec 12;6(5):1380-1391. doi: 10.1039/d3na00991b. eCollection 2024 Feb 27.

Authors

Yuanhang Fan¹, Zhenyu Zhang¹, Jiaxin Yu², Xingqiao Deng³, Chunjing Shi⁴, Hongxiu Zhou⁵, Fanning Meng⁴, Junyuan Feng⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of High-performance Precision Manufacturing, Dalian University of Technology Dalian 116024 China zzy@dlut.edu.cn.
² School of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology Mianyang 621010 China yujiaxin@swust.edu.cn.
³ School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology Chengdu 610059 China dengxingqiao19@cdut.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University Hangzhou 310018 China.
⁵ School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology Dalian 116024 China.

Abstract

High-performance devices of quartz glass demand an atomic surface, which induces a challenge for chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) with a high material removal rate (MRR). Moreover, traditional CMP usually employs toxic and corrosive slurries, leading to the pollution of the environment. To overcome these challenges, a novel green photocatalytic CMP is proposed. In the CMP, SiO₂@TiO₂ core-shell abrasives were developed, and the CMP slurry included the developed abrasives, sodium carbonate, hydrogen peroxide and sorbitol. After photocatalytic CMP, the surface roughness S_a of quartz glass is 0.185 nm, with a scanning area of 50 × 50 μm², and the MRR is 8.64 μm h^-1. To the best of our knowledge, the MRR is the highest on such a big area of atomic surface for quartz glass. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals that SiO₂@TiO₂ core-shell abrasives were used as photocatalysts motivated by simulated solar light, generating electrons and holes and producing hydroxyl radicals through hydrogen peroxide. As a result, OH^- could combine with Si atoms on the surface of quartz glass, forming Si-OH-Si bonds. Then the formed bonds were removed based on the balance between chemical and mechanical functions. The proposed CMP, developed SiO₂@TiO₂ abrasives and slurry provide new insights to achieve an atomic surface of quartz glass with a high MRR.