Enhanced Mechanical and Hydrophobic Antireflective Nanocoatings Fabricated on Polycarbonate Substrates by Combined Treatment of Water and HMDS Vapor

Yao Yan; Jia Liu; Bing Zhang; Ruohan Xia; Yuqi Zhang; Zisheng Guan

doi:10.3390/ma16103850

Enhanced Mechanical and Hydrophobic Antireflective Nanocoatings Fabricated on Polycarbonate Substrates by Combined Treatment of Water and HMDS Vapor

Materials (Basel). 2023 May 19;16(10):3850. doi: 10.3390/ma16103850.

Authors

Yao Yan¹, Jia Liu¹, Bing Zhang¹, Ruohan Xia¹, Yuqi Zhang¹, Zisheng Guan¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, 30 South PuZhu Road, Nanjing 211816, China.

Abstract

Polycarbonate (PC) with high transmittance, stable mechanical performance and environmental resistance is crucial for practical applications. In this work, we report a method for the preparation of a robust antireflective (AR) coating by a simple dip-coating process of a mixed ethanol suspension consisting of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) base-catalyzed silica nanoparticles (SNs) and acid-catalyzed silica sol (ACSS). ACSS greatly improved the adhesion and durability of the coating, and the AR coating exhibited high transmittance and mechanical stability. Water and hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) vapor treatment were further employed to improve the hydrophobicity of the AR coating. The as-prepared coating exhibited excellent antireflective properties, with an average transmittance of 96.06% in the wavelength range of 400 to 1000 nm, which is 7.55% higher than the bare PC substrate. After sand and water droplet impact tests, the AR coating still maintained enhanced transmittance and hydrophobicity. Our method shows a potential application for the preparation of hydrophobic AR coatings on a PC substrate.

Keywords: antireflective nanocoatings; hydrophobicity; mechanical stability; polycarbonate; silica.

Grants and funding

This work received funding from the Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Inorganic Function Composites, the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).