Sol-Gel Preparation of Silica Films with Controlled Surface Morphology and Their Application to a Low Reflective Glass

Silica coating films with various surface morphologies, such as flat, porous (with deep pores), concave-convex (with hills and valleys), and convex (with hills on flat plane) structure were prepared from a mixture of two kinds of sols derived from polymerized tetraethoxy-silane (TEOS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTES). Different surface morphologies were obtained by varying the molar ratio r = MTES/TEOS of the coating solution. The surface was flat for r less than 2.5, porous for 2.5 r < 5, concave-convex for 5 r < 7.5, convex for 7.5 r < 13, and again flat for r larger than 13. For 2.5 r < 5, the apparent refractive index of the silica film with porous morphology was decreased to 1.23 by selecting the solvent and by controlling the relative humidity of the coating atmosphere and the heat treatment temperature. Coating of glass with silica films of low refractive index of 1.23 led to the low reflective glasses with visible light reflectance Rvis of less than 0.2%.