Transparent anti-fogging and self-cleaning coatings are of great interest for many applications, including solar panels, windshields and displays or lenses to be used in humid environments. In this paper, we report on the simultaneous synthesis, at atmospheric pressure, of anatase TiO2 nanoparticles and low-temperature, high-rate deposition of anatase TiO2/SiO2 nanocomposite coatings. These coatings exhibit durable super-hydrophilic and photocatalytic properties. The strategy followed relies on concomitant and separated injections of titania, i.e. titanium isopropoxide, and silica, i.e. hexamethyldisiloxane, precursors in the stream of a blown-arc discharge to form transparent anti-fogging and self-cleaning anatase TiO2/SiO2 nanocomposite coatings on polymer substrates.
For the first time, the plasma‐assisted inkjet printing of metal‐organic decomposition (MOD) inks is demonstrated to provide an easily up‐scalable method toward the deposition of highly conductive silver features on paper. Atmospheric plasma sintering methods provide a fast and effective alternative to thermal treatment. This high‐speed, room‐temperature approach ensures the immediate conversion of the MOD inks after printing and thus overcomes wetting issues typically encountered in porous substrates—a mechanical solution to a chemical problem.
Standing Lamb waves in vibrating plates enable haptic interfaces. If the out‐of‐plane displacement of these waves exceeds 1 µm at frequencies above 25 kHz, a silent friction modulation can be created between a human finger and a vibrating plate. A fully transparent friction‐modulation haptic device based on a piezoelectric thin film is demonstrated. The antisymmetric Lamb mode induced at 73 kHz allows for a functional performance that fulfills all conditions for practical use. Out‐of‐plane displacement reaches 2.9 µm when 150 V unipolar voltage is applied. The average transmittance of the whole transducer reaches 75%. The key points of this technology are: 1) a thin HfO2 layer between lead zirconate titanate film and substrate that prevents chemical reaction between them; 2) the efficient integration of transparent indium tin oxide electrodes and solution‐derived piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate thin film onto optical‐grade fused silica; and 3) the use of a transparent insulating layer made of SU‐8 photoresist.
A simple and easily scalable approach toward the simultaneous synthesis and deposition of conducting plasma-polymerized 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (ppE-DOT) coatings is reported. Our atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge (AP-DBD) approach, operating at room-temperature and atmospheric-pressure, does not involve the use of oxidants other than the reactive oxygen species (ROS) formed by the open air Ar/O 2 dielectric barrier discharge. The oxidative polymerization of EDOT is confirmed using UV-visible (UV-vis), Raman, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) investigations highlight the discrepancies between the synthesized ppEDOT and conventional PEDOT. Finally, highly transparent (i.e., 98% transmittance) and durable conducting thin films are deposited on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) foils.
K E Y W O R D Satmospheric-plasma, ethylene dioxythiophene, nanopulsed discharge, transparent organic conductors,
mass-spectrometryThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Molybdenum disulfide coatings have been employed as lubricants for spacecraft since the 1950s but continue to face major engineering challenges including performance in both terrestrial air and deep space vacuum environments and service lifetimes on the order of decades without maintenance. Co‐deposition of MoS2 with additive compounds provide enhancements in some circumstances but a lubricant which can perform in all space‐facing environments with long lifetimes remains an ongoing problem. Herein, it is demonstrated the multi‐environment adaptable performance of a novel MoS2 + tantalum lubricant coating, which excels as a lubricant in both terrestrial and space environments while the benchmark space‐qualified commercial MoS2 lubricants do not. It is noted that the 10% tantalum additive exhibits preferential oxidation in air to preserve the lubricating ability of MoS2 while forming phases of TaS2, which aid in the exceptional lubrication of MoS2 in ultra‐high vacuum. Additionally, completely different tribofilms of small particles and compact sheets are noted for air and vacuum environments, respectively, which allows for adaptable lubricating mechanisms from a single coating depending on the environment. This novel coating sets the benchmark as the first demonstrated instance of a fully versatile space lubricant which offers high‐performance in both terrestrial and deep space environments.
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