Scratch formation on glass surfaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon induced by plastic deformation, often accompanied by radial, lateral or median cracks with consequent chipping and brittle fracture caused during and after the event of dynamic abrasion instigated by shear stress by a harder material. This paper addresses the fundamental aspect of scratch formation on soda-lime-silica (SLS) glass surfaces. A constructive combination of surface-sensitive characterization tools, including field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), laser scanning microscopy (LSM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy and instrumented indentation technique (IIT), helped to investigate the structural cause of generation of visible scratches on SLS glass surfaces. The experimental results indicate that a silicate network possessing a mechanically weakening structural characteristic in terms of network connectivity confined to the region between 5 and 100 nm below the glass surface is likely to cause a destructive surface scratch eminently visible to the naked eye.

The structural chemistry of the near‐surface region of soda–lime–silica (SLS) glass is described in terms of silicate network connectivity using X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A thorough investigation of O1s and Si2p spectral lines by sequential XPS measurements, accompanied by Ar+ sputtering, revealed the variation of concentration of bridging oxygen, non‐bridging oxygen (NBO), and hydrous species (SiOH/H2O) as a function of depth from the glass surface. The Ototal/Si atomic ratio was calculated to vary in the range of 2.90–3.74 throughout the depth of sputtering for a total duration of 110 min, while considering each of the aforementioned oxygen speciations in the curve‐fitted spectra of O1s orbital. The glass surface up to a depth of 1–3 nm had the highest Ototal/Si ratio of 3.74, which was representative for a mechanically weak structure with Q0 and Q1 species, marked by the respective linkages of four and three NBOs per silica tetrahedral unit. This dictates the vital contribution of the hydrous species associated with silanol groups to the near‐surface structure of SLS glass.

Scratch formation on glass surfaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon induced by the virtue of plastic deformation, often accompanied by radial, lateral or median cracks with consequent chipping and brittle fracture caused during and after the event of dynamic abrasion instigated by shear stress by another harder material. This paper deals with the fundamental aspect of scratch formation on soda-lime-silica (SLS) glass surfaces. A constructive combination of surface-sensitive characterization tools including field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), laser scanning microscopy (LSM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy and instrumented indentation technique (IIT), helped to investigate the structural cause of generation of visible scratches on SLS glass surfaces. The experimental evidences propose that a silicate network possessing a mechanically-weakening structural characteristic in terms of network connectivity confined to the region between 5 nm and 100 nm below the glass surface, is likely to cause a destructive surface scratch eminently visible to naked eyes.