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theses

Melting gels are a class of hybrid organic-inorganic gels prepared via the sol-gel process that have glass transition temperatures near room temperature and consolidation temperatures ~150°C. Their thermal properties allow for useful processing techniques: melting gels exhibit thermoplastic behavior below their consolidation temperatures, then undergo complete cross-linking to form organically modified silica networks upon consolidation. By appropriately tuning surface properties, these glass sprays can be used as protective coatings in electronics and anti-corrosion in metals. Electrospray deposition was used to spray dilute solutions of 1 wt% melting gels in 2-butanone onto silicon substrates. Electrospray uses high voltages to produce charged, monodisperse droplets, and because of the low solid contents used in our study, it uniformly delivers small amounts of melting gel at a continuous rate. Parameters such as the pH of melting gel synthesis, solution viscosity, and spray polarity can be varied to alter and study the effects of charge injection on the consolidation of the melting gel into hybrid glasses. Optical images, film thickness measurements, nanoindentation, FT-IR, and goniometry were used to evaluate and demonstrate the effects of these variables on both the physical morphology along with the chemical structure of the final coatings.

ETD_10890

M.S.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-yt1j-r755

ETD graduate

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