Abstract:
The modification of glass for prevention of contamination has been a subject of active
research in materials science. The key property to attain this feature is the self-cleaning in
glass. Self-cleaning can occur via different mechanisms, such as hydrophobic, hydrophilic,
and hydrophilic mechanism coupled with photocatalysis. Self-cleaning has been gaining a
lot of attention in the academic as well as commercial sectors mainly due to the immense
variety of its potential applications, which include daily-life as well as industrial and hightech
uses, such as self-cleaning windows, windshields, exterior paints for building, roof
tiles, textiles, and drag reduction in fluid flow etc. A lot of research has been ongoing for
the development of self-cleaning glass by application of superhydrophobic material on the
surface of glass. In this work, formation of hydrophobic coating on glass substrates was
carried out via sol-gel thin-film synthesis route, with the use of Triethyl orthosilicate as the
starting precursor. Attempts to increase the hydrophobicity of silica films by surface
modification using Trimethyl silane. Effects of surface modification through introduction
of varying amounts of CTAB was also studied. In order to enhance the strength and
durability of the coatings while retaining super hydrophobicity, the silica films were
reinforced with small amounts of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), and its
effects on wetting characteristic and morphology of the films were studied. To overcome
the problem of adhesion and durability of the films, another method was explored, which
utilized colorless epoxy resin to adhere silica particles onto the substrate surface. The
morphology of the films prepared was analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscope
(SEM) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). To characterize the wettability of the films,
contact angle measurements were carried out using Drop Shape Analyzer. The contact
angles of silica modified surfaces were observed to approach 95o.
