Effect of SiO2-acryl nanohybrid coating layers on transparent conducting oxide-poly(ethylene terephthalate) superstrate.

SiO2-acryl nanohybrid coating layers were produced by hybridizing acrylic resin and surface-modified colloidal silica (CS) nanoparticles. First, CS nanoparticles were modified with methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) and vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) by a sol-gel process. The surface-modified CS nanoparticles were then solvent-exchanged to be homogeneous in acrylic resin. The Hybrid materials were mixed in variation with the amount of surface-modified CS nanoparticles, coated with poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), then finally cured by UV light to obtain a hybrid coating layer. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), particle size analysis (using a Zetasizer), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were performed to determine the morphology of the hybrid thin-films. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to investigate the thermal properties. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible (UVNis) spectroscopies, and pencil hardness were used to obtain the details of chemical structures, optical properties, and hardness, respectively. The hybrid thin films had shown to be enhanced properties compared to their urethane acrylate prepolymer (UAP) coating film.