Functional coatings of sol-gel on glass substrate using CO2 laser irradiation

Abstract

Often Glass products achieve their component functionality only by a specific surface finishing, such as coating or patterning. Compared to vacuum based CVD and PVD coating techniques, the equipment for wet-chemical deposition of sol-gels is less expensive. Heat is needed for a chemical reaction to cure gels and form solid functional layers. In this study, sols with titanium and zirconium were applied on glass substrates by dip coating. The investigated layer thicknesses were in the range between 320 nm and 650 nm. The gel layers were annealed with CO2 laser radiation. Different scanning speeds and laser powers were investigated. Microscope images were used to compare the laser-annealed layers with oven-annealed layers. To conclude, the oven-process can be substituted by laser annealing and additionally enables local patterning. This allows gradient coating solutions for architecture applications.