Low cost and large-area fabrication of self-cleaning coating on polymeric surface based on electroless-plating-like solution deposition approach

Abstract

A novel low-cost controllable solution-based coating process for realization of self-cleaning coating on large-area flexible polymeric substrates based on an improved Electroless-Plating-Like Solution Deposition (EPLSD) approach was developed. In a typical coating procedure, a layer of aniline was first adsorbed onto the surface of a flexible polymeric substrate by dip-coating; and as the pretreated flexible substrate was then immersed into an nanosol including a Peroxo-Titanium-Complex (PTC) modified silica (P–Si), after the thermal treatment at 80 °C for 30 min, the flexible polymeric substrate coated by P–Si composite thin films could be obtained. The as-prepared TiO₂–SiO₂ thin film was characterized by TEM, SEM, XRD, and FTIR analysis, and its self-cleaning characteristics were also evaluated by the contact angle and the methyl blue degradation test.