Synthesis and characterization of fluorine-free, hydrophobic and highly transparent coatings
A. Hamdi, J. Chalon, B. Dodin, P. Champagne
IRT Railenium, France
SNCF Innovation & Research, France
LMCPA, UPHF, France
: J Chem Appl Chem Eng
Abstract
This research work concerns the synthesis of hydrophobic and self-cleaning coatings as an alternative to fluorine-based coatings used on glass. The developed, highly transparent coatings are produced by a chemical route (sol-gel method) using two silica-based precursors, hexamethyldisilazane and tetraethoxysilane (HMDS/TEOS). The addition of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO nanoparticles) within the gel provides a photocatalytic property to the final coating. The prepared gels were deposited on glass slides using different methods. The properties of the coatings were characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer and water contact angle method. The results show that the coatings obtained are homogeneous and have a hydrophobic character. In particular, after thermal treatment, the HMDS/TEOS@ ZnO charged gel deposited on glass constitutes a coating capable of degrading methylene blue (MB) under UV irradiation. Optical transmission reaches more than 90% in most of the visible light spectrum. Synthetised coatings have also demonstrated their mechanical durability and selfcleaning ability.
Biography
Abderrahmane Hamdi has completed his PhD at the age of 29 years. He has conducted his research between the University of Carthage, Tunisia in Collaboration with the Institute of Electronic, Microelectronic and Nanotechnology (IEMN), University of Lille, France. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Technological Research Railenium. He has published more than 15 papers and he gave oral presentations in national and international conferences.
