Hard UV-curable organo-mineral coatings for optical applications

Danièle Blanc-Pélissier , Danièle Blanc (1) , Arndt Last (2) , Janyce Franc (1) , Sophie Pavan (3) , Jean-Luc Loubet (3)

1 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien
2 IMT - Institute for Microstructure Technology
3 LTDS - Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes

Organically-modified silicate incorporating various amounts of zirconium precursor was synthesized via a sol-gel route. The material was deposited as thin films on PMMA substrates and densified by UV-curing. Mechanical properties were measured by nanoindentation and data were recorded continuously as a function of the penetration depth during the loading-unloading cycles. Values of hardness and Young modulus were found in the range 340 to 440 MPa and 4 to 6 GPa respectively. It was shown that these values could be tailored by varying the relative amount of zirconium in the layer. The material exhibited a very elastic behaviour that was related to its high degree of cross-linking assessed by infrared spectroscopy. Results were compared with measurements published by various groups on related materials. The mechanical and optical properties of the samples made this class of material promising as hard coatings for optical applications.

Keywords: Nanoindentation; mechanical properties; UV-cured coatings; organic-inorganic thin films; sol-gel process

Domains: Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Danièle Blanc-Pélissier, Danièle Blanc, Arndt Last, Janyce Franc, Sophie Pavan, et al.. Hard UV-curable organo-mineral coatings for optical applications. 2006. ⟨ujm-00110864⟩