Development of Transparent and Scratch Proof M/Sialon Thin Films (M: Alkaline Earth or Rare Earth) for High Technology Applications

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

Transparent and scratch proof surfaces are essential components for various modern technologies, especially as a protector in solar cell, liquid crystals display, electrochromic windows, optical lenses, smartphone screens, and army vehicles windows. Most of the researchers engaged in the field of transparent surfaces believe that the noteworthy advancement in the field would be driven by optimizing the deposition parameters of the physical vapour deposition techniques such as pulsed laser deposition, DC/RF sputtering, etc. This is because such techniques allow to control crystalline structure, stress, grain size, composition, and defects density in the deposited thin films. However, the main issues associated with the transparent surfaces are brittleness, poor resistance to scratching, fingerprints and optical dimming. Alumino-silicate oxynitride (Sialon) ceramics which is a solid solution of silicon nitride and a few percent of alumina are favourable candidates for producing hard surfaces (both scratch and abrasion hardness), high temperature resistance, wear resistance, chemical corrosion resistance, sun light resistance, environmental corrosion resistance, and most importantly environmentally friendly. Several research groups found that doped bulk Sialon ceramics with large radii ions cause an increase in the bond strength between dopant materials and the surrounding atoms, which in turn leads to improve the mechanical properties of bulk Sialon. Presently, there is much technological and scientific interest for thinner, lighter and strong Sialon materials for display technology. These properties are expected to be achieved by the fabrication of large ion radius-doped Sialon thin films onto transparent materials. This proposal aims to fabricate, and characterize novel M/Sialon (M: rare earth such as La, Y, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Nd, Er, Yb and Alkaline earth elements such as Mg, Ca. Sr, Ba) targets by spark plasma sintering (SPS), and M/Sialon thin films via pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in nitrogen atmosphere and evaluate their optical, mechanical, compositional, and structural properties. The project is structured over a 2-year period and consists of four work packages; (1) novel ceramic targets in M-Sialon forms will be prepared by SPS. (2) novel M-Sialon thin films will be fabricated by PLD system at different deposition conditions, (3) state-of-the-art techniques will be used to investigate the effect of the fabrication parameters of thin films on physical, chemical and structural properties. (4) mechanical and optical properties such as scratch resistance, wear resistance, hardness, elastic modulus, Poissons ratio, refractive index, and contact angle will be investigated. Finally, market analysis and possible application of these coatings surface will be performed. The progress of the project will be assessed periodically, and the obtained knowledge will be disseminated accordingly. It is worth mentioning that the proposed study falls directly under four main directed research areas at KFUPM, (i) advanced Materials and (ii) nanotechnology, (iii) laser, and (IV) renewable energy.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/04/201/04/22

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