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Achievement of low sparkle in anti-glare spray coatings by controlling the size of polymerized species in silica sols

  • Original Paper: Industrial and technological applications of sol-gel and hybrid materials
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Abstract

Modern high-resolution displays require anti-glare treatments that minimize sparkle (visual noise). This study achieved anti-glare properties with low sparkle by spray coating of silica sols. The silica sols contained polymerized species, synthesized by hydrolyzing a silicon alkoxide precursor. The size of the polymerized species was controlled by varying the amount of solvent added before aging the sols; the solutions were diluted further after aging so that their final apparent compositions were the same. The sizes of the polymerized species were measured with dynamic light scattering — the maximum Z-average value was 7.8 nm and the maximum volume-average value was 4.3 nm. Larger polymerized species made the lateral pitch of the anti-glare surface shorter, which explains the lower sparkle. Moreover, increasing the size of polymerized species is an effective way to increase the haze. This study shows for the first time that the anti-glare performance can be enhanced by increasing the size of polymerized species.

Highlights

  • Low-sparkle anti-glare spray coating made by growing size of polymerized species in silica sols.

  • Larger polymerized species in sols made the lateral pitch of the roughened surface shorter.

  • We clarified the effect of the size of the polymerized species on anti-glare properties.

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Availability of data and material

The data that support the findings of this study are available from Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd. upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Kate Nairn, PhD, from Edanz (https://jp.edanz.com/ac) for editing a draft of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd., 1979 Takatsuki, Takatsuki-cho, Nagahama, Shiga, 529-0241, Japan

    Toshiyuki Kajioka, Toshimasa Kanai & Koji Ikegami

  2. Faculty of Chemistry, Materials and Bioengineering, Kansai University, 3-3-35 Yamate-cho, Suita, 564-8680, Japan

    Hiromitsu Kozuka

Authors
  1. Toshiyuki Kajioka
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  2. Toshimasa Kanai
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  3. Koji Ikegami
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  4. Hiromitsu Kozuka
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Correspondence to Toshiyuki Kajioka.

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Conflict of interest

T. Kajioka, T. Kanai, and K. Ikegami are employees of Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd.

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Kajioka, T., Kanai, T., Ikegami, K. et al. Achievement of low sparkle in anti-glare spray coatings by controlling the size of polymerized species in silica sols. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 100, 244–251 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-021-05664-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-021-05664-1

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