Sol-gel coatings
Sol-gel is a chemical synthesis technique for the fabrication of glasses and glass ceramics. A wide range of compositions can be fabricated using this technique. The properties of the coatings are determined by the composition and the detailed synthesis procedure. Applications where sol-gel technology has been used include:
- Chemical protection
- Abrasion protection
- Anti-reflective coatings
- Electronic material
- Optoelectronics
Coatings can be deposited on a wide range of substrates including, metals, glasses, ceramics and polymers. The coatings themselves may be:
- Inorganic
- Inorganic/organic composites
- Organic/inorganic structural hybrids
Services offered by TWI include:
- Materials selection
- Processing and evaluation
TWI also offers a range of characterisation methods these include:
- Optical microscopy
- Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis
- Thermal analysis
- Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR)
- X-ray diffraction (XRD)
Further information
Knowledge summaries
FAQs
- What is sol-gel processing?
- What are the main industrial application areas for sol-gel derived materials?
- What is a sol (in the context of sol-gel technology)?
- How does a gel form from a sol?
- What materials can you make with sol-gel?
Staff papers
- Sol-gel: synthesising glasses and ceramics (Bulletin, March/April 1996) Industrial Members Only
- Ceramics coating - a growing technology (Bulletin, March/April 1992) Industrial Members Only
- TWI comes up to scratch (Connect, January 1999)
- Novel joining and sealing processes for solid oxide fuel cell technology
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