Glass microscope slides develop a readily visible corrosion pattern when exposed to multiple wash cycles in a phosphate based cleaning solution buffered at pH10 and at 65 deg C. This pattern develops from nanoscale features present on the surface of as-manufactured slides which gradually enlarge to micron wide ridges running the entire length of the slide and standing out 0.1-1 microns in relief from the surrounding glass surface. A careful study via AFM, ellipsometry and interferometry of surface morphology in the vicinity of a ridge shows these features as sharply defined, linear upwellings which appear to grow as the surrounding glass recedes by dissolution. Analysis of the evolution of the width of these ridges indicates that they result from cylindrical inclusions of glass with a slightly different composition than that of their surroundings.
