Physico-chemical properties of sol-gel derived glass coatings

A good coating is one which improves the durability and appearance of the underlying substrate without affecting the inherent properties. Studies on the silica and other metal oxide coatings have been keenly researched and the results are discussed herein. Being versatile, the sol-gel chemical method was used for coating glass/ metal substrates. Coatings of silica, alumina, titatia and zirconia were studied for their protective properties such as non-wetting property, alkali resistance, self cleaning property etc. Various characterization techniques, XRD, SEM, FTIR, contact angle were employed so as to study the physico-chemical properties of the coatings.