Preparation of Hard Coating Films with High Refractive Index using Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Coating Solutions

Inorganic-organic hybrid coating solutions were synthesized using titania sol from titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) as an inorganic component and mixture of two or three types of silane coupling agents, such as methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (MPTMS), aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APS), glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) and vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) as an organic component. The hard coating films were obtained by spin-coating on the polycarbonate sheets and curing the inorganic-organic hybrid coating solutions. The coating films made from the mixture of two types of silane coupling agents showed poor pencil hardness and adhesion, while those from the mixture of three types of silane coupling agents exhibited an improved pencil hardness of 2H?4H and adhesion of 5B. The refractive indexes of coating films were increased from 1.56 to 1.63 at 550 nm by increasing the content of titania sols from 20 to 30 g.