The Nano Tio <sub> 2 </ Sub> Coating Of Glass Mechanical Properties Study

TiO₂ nanofilm is a very important function inorganic material. It hasperfect optical properties, good electrical properties and high chemicalresistibility. So more and more research works have been put in this aspect andthe film is widely used in many fields in recent years.The smooth nanometer TiO₂ thin films coated on glass substrates wereprepared by the sol-gel processing in this work. The morphology, crystalstructure and mechanical properties of Ce⁴⁺ -doped/undoped TiO₂ thin films werecharacterized by means of XRD, AFM and nano-indentation. Moreover, theindentation experiments were simulated using a finite element method (FEM).The mechanical properties of glass substrates with different coating layers weretested. Then, the effect of TiO₂ thin film on surface modification of the glasssubstrate was discussed.The XRD results indicated that the anatase content in the films wasincreased with the increasing of heat treatment temperature. When treated at600℃,the anatase phase was partially converted into rutile in pure TiO₂ thinfilms; however, it was not happened in Ce⁴⁺-doped TiO₂ thin films. The AFMresults showed that the diameter of TiO₂ particles in the film were in the rangeof nanometers, the surface of films was smooth and the roughness was small.When doped with Ce⁴⁺, the crystal structure of anatase was much denser and thegranularity was much smaller. The nano-indentation results showed that theYoung's modulus and hardness of the TiO₂-coated substrates were enhancedwith the increasing of the coating times, but the changes were not evident. Themechanical properties of glass substrates such as Young's modulus, tensilestrength, bending strength and fracture toughness were sufficiently enhancedwith the increase of coating layers.