Sol-gel course FUNGLASS

INTRODUCTION TO SOL-GEL SCIENCE

Alicia Durán

Research Professor CSIC, Madrid

Last days FunGlass researchersa and PhD. students spent their time with Alicia Duran– Research Professor of Institute for Ceramic and Glass (CSIC), Madrid.

She gave theoretical lectures as well as practical course on sol-gel process (10 h of lectures plus 7 h of lab practices) as it was scheduled:

Wednesday 13^th November. 15:30-18:30

The sol-gel process. Processing from colloidal suspensions. The alkoxide route. Control of reaction kinetics. Effect of pH and H₂O/alkoxides ratio. Multi-oxide systems, control of reaction kinetics. Drying and sintering processes.

 Thursday 14^th November. 9:00 – 12:30

Hybrid organic-inorganic systems. Polymerisation and co-polymerisation processes. Precursors. Synthesis conditions. Bulk materials, coatings, membranes.

Characterization of sol-gel sols. Viscosity, density, rheological stability. FTIR, UV-Visible.

 Friday 15^th November. 9:00 – 12:30

Glass coatings by sol-gel. Deposition methods. Dipping, Spinning, Spray, EPD. Drying and sintering conditions. Residual stresses.

Pre-treatments of the substrates. Cleaning procedures.

Characterization of sol-gel coatings. Thickness, roughness. DRX, GI-DRX, SAXS, GI-SAXS, TEM, SEM. UV-visible, FTIR, Ellipsometry, photoluminescence, nano-indentation.

LAB PRACTICES

Thursday 14^th November. 14:00 – 18:00

The sol-gel laboratory. Basic equipment and working conditions. Composition formulation.

Group 1. Preparation of an inorganic TiO₂ sol with and without complexing agent. Characterization of the sols (density, viscosity, qualitative surface tension, FTIR, UV-Vis).

Group 2. Preparation of hybrid sols. TEOS-MTES sol. Synthesis study. Characterization of the sols (density, viscosity, qualitative surface tension, FTIR). SiO₂ from TEOS and SiO₂ from TEOS-MTES.

 Friday 15^th November – 14:30 – 17:30

Presentation of the results of lab practices. Discussion and Conclusions