Sol-gel films with tailored microstructures

This paper reports on the refractive index and porosity of silicate films formed by dip-coating were tailored by varying the aging time of the two-step acid-and base-catalyzed sol to control the size and structure of the polymeric species prior to coating. 29Si NMR showed that there was a 2% increase in the total number of bridging oxygens with sol age, consistent with a cluster-cluster growth mechanism. However, several percent monomer remained regardless of aging. Dip-coated films sere characterized by ellipsometry before and after heating to moderate temperatures at three rates. Sol aging prior to film deposition leads to greater film porosity, consistent with the concept of aggregation of fractal clusters, but only after a heat treatment to remove the organic species associated with incompletely hydrolyzed monomers from the pores.pores