Adhesion enhancement of hard coatings deposited on flexible plastic substrates using an interfacial buffer layer

An interfacial buffer layer has been developed to improve the silicon oxide (SiOx) hard coating adhered to a flexible plastic substrate through a consecutive plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition process, using the same organosilicon precursor. The adhesion of the hard coating structure, correlated with the buffer layer thickness, was rated by the standard tape-peeling test. An excellent adhesion (rank 5B) was available for the hard coating structure with an interfacial buffer layer deposited on polycarbonate and polymethylmethacrylate substrates. The degree of adhesion strength for the hard coating structures was measured by the standard scratch test. The increase in the critical loads determined from the scratch test was well correlated with the tape-peeling test results. The hard coating structure showed excellent adhesion and also corresponded to a minimum residual stress. The mechanisms responsible for the adhesion enhancement were linked to the specific chemical bonds of the hydrocarbon C-H bond, and cross-linking Si-C bond appeared in the interfacial buffer layer. The C-H bond was recognized as a hydrophobic group that was favourable for minimizing the adsorption of ambient contaminants potentially arising during deposition, while the cross-linking Si-C bond functioned to compensate the large tensile stress residing in the SiOx hard coating. As a consequence, a close contact and progressive morphology resulting in excellent adhesion were observed at the interface of the hard coating structure with an interfacial buffer layer.