How to decompose the coating on the photographic lens

There are many kinds of coating materials for lenses.

The most common is magnesium fluoride. And most coating materials are fluorides.

And a lot of oxides. Alumina, zirconia, titania, ceria, etc.

And most films are multilayer, so you never know what is plated on the lens.

Most of these materials are very stable and cannot be removed by general solvents.

Glass is usually acid-resistant. If you want to remove the coating without damaging the lens, you can only use acid to remove it, except hydrofluoric acid, which will corrode the glass.

I'm just talking about ordinary glass here. But optical glass is different from ordinary glass, and you don't know the ingredients used in various lenses.

In addition, some coating materials are more resistant to these acids than the glass itself.

In the case of magnesium fluoride, nitric acid can be dissolved.

Titanium oxide should be dissolved in hot concentrated sulfuric acid, regardless of the estimation, your lens is finished.

Alumina is insoluble.

As everyone said before, it is best not to remove the coating. In fact, the molding is just unsightly and has little effect on the overall optical performance. After removing the coating, the imaging ability of the whole lens decreases.