UV curing of organic-inorganic hybrid coating materials

The effect of UV-curing time on the mechanism of interaction between the various precursor phases in a novel sol-gel-derived organic-inorganic hybrid coating material and the resulting mechanical and thermal properties of this material when coated onto substrates in thin film form have been examined using a variety of chemical and physical characterisation methods. Microstructurally, the hybrid coating materials examined were all a single amorphous phase and were all optically transparent. The degree of interaction between the organic and inorganic phases, the scratch behaviour of the coating materials and the thermal stability of the coating materials were all found to depend strongly on the UV curing time. For the particular proportions of inorganic and organic components used to make up this hybrid coating material, an optimum UV curing time of 10 min under a UV intensity of 46.3 mW cm(-2) was found to produce transparent coatings which adhered well to the substrates and which were robust in scratch tests on aluminium and polycarbonate substrates and abrasion tests on polycarbonate substrates.