Investigation of Hydrolysis and Condensation Conditions on Abrasion Resistance of Sol-Gel Based UV Curable Hybrid Coatings

Organic-inorganic hybrid coatings were prepared to increase abrasion and solvent resistance of polycarbonate sheets. To this end, sol-gel method was used to generate in situ nano silica network as inorganic part and UV curable urethane acrylate oligomer and acrylate monomers with different functionality as organic part. Different factors including water to alkoxide ratio, molar ratio of precursors and the ratio of inorganic to organic were studied. The effect of these parameters on transparency and mechanical properties was investigated. High amount of water to alkoxide ratio causes incompatibility between organic and inorganic part. Using moderate amount of precursors and inorganic to organic ratio, optimum transparency and abrasion resistance could be obtained.