Antimicrobial and strengthened-glass articles through pressurized ion exchange

A method of treating a substrate in a pressure vessel, comprising:

• preparing a bath with a bath composition that comprises a polar solvent and a plurality of cations comprising a plurality of Ag+ ions and a plurality of K+ ions in a vessel;
• submersing a substrate in the bath, wherein the substrate comprises a plurality of exchangeable cations;
• pressurizing the bath in the vessel to a predetermined pressure, wherein the predetermined pressure is substantially greater than ambient pressure;
• and
• exchanging or infusing a portion of the plurality of cations from the bath composition with a portion of the plurality of exchangeable cations in an outer region of the substrate for a predetermined duration at the predetermined pressure, wherein the outer region extends from a first surface to a first selected depth in the substrate, and further wherein the exchanging or infusing is conducted to form (a) a compressive stress layer having a portion of the plurality of K+ ions that extends from a first surface of the substrate to a compressive layer depth and (b) an antimicrobial region having a portion of the plurality of Ag+ ions that extends from the first surface to an antimicrobial region depth.