Silicon dioxide based coatings

Silicon dioxide is a fascinating material as it can form 3-dimensional network in many ways due to “flexibility” of O-Si-O bond. At elevated temperatures or pressures, it naturally takes another forms with another sets of properties and as molten it has peculiar properties like those of water.

With varying additional trace elements or inclusions in structure, quartz can be found in varying forms from sand to beautifully coloured gems in nature. Even air can be introduced into a structure, humans have created silica aerogels out of siloxanes by supercritical drying of solvent out from silica skeleton.

Herkimer quartz

By plasma assisted deposition a liquid precursor containing already a larger O-Si-O backbone can be selected, and bonding and internal structure of conformal deposition controlled in precise manner with relatively low energy input via plasma phase.

Starting from single layer antireflective coatings, silica-based coatings are a backbone of many coatings for surface functionalization from transparent scratch resistant coatings onto water repellent easy to clean surfaces, chemical- or UV protection. These are organic-inorganic hybrids. The amount of iron oxide in commercial glass, giving aquamarine tint, is in the range of 0,05 wt%, so even minor impurities can give a shade and one could think to produce even silica based gem-coloured coatings.

Summary

At NextGen Surfaces Finland, we harness this versatility of siloxanes through plasma-assisted deposition and can help on formulating appropriate deposition for a given application.