Journal
SURFACE & COATINGS TECHNOLOGY
Volume 198, Issue 1-3, Pages 420-424Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
DOI: 10.1016/j.surfcoat.2004.10.050
Keywords
hydrophobicity; sol-gel; coating; morphology; lotus leaf
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Sol-gel technology enables us to make scratch resistant hard coatings on plastic or non-ferrous metal substrates for industrial applications. Increasing hydrophobicity without decreasing the mechanical properties of these coatings is a challenge. We study the influence of chemical and morphological modifications on the hydrophobicity of a silica based sol-gel hard coating. To modify the chemical properties of the coating, a long side-chain alkyltrialkoxysilane is incorporated into the coating solution. To modify the surface morphology of the coating, a silica filler with selected particle size distribution is added. Varying the silica content resulted in different surface roughness and different morphology distributions. We observed a gradual increase in water contact angle with increasing roughness, and a rapid increase when the morphology changed to a lotus-leaf-like structure. We propose a new roughness parameter, the peak-to-valley ratio, to characterize morphologies with high hydrophobicity. This paper describes a single-step modification process that produces a material with microstructure and hydrophobic properties analogous to those of the lotus leaf while maintaining the coating hardness necessary for industrial applications. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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