Morphology of sol–gel produced composite films for optical oxygen sensors

Thin Films for Immobilization of Complexes with Optical Properties

“…The films produced (10-15 mm) from TEOS/OtEOS and Rudpp sols at withdrawal speed of 0.4 mm/s and up to 5 immersions have a good uniformity and thickness of about 500 nm. Smoothness of the films, combined with the good linkage between the layers, is ensured by these conditions [19]. The presence of Rudpp in the films produced from TEOS leads to the .…”

“…On the surface, the silanol groups are replaced by alkyl groups that have a poor affinity for water so by that they are keeping the sol-gel surface hydrophobic [13]. Films deposited at a withdrawal speed of 0.4 mm/s with variations of the number of the immersions (from 1 to 7) on microscope glass using gels produced from TEOS, OtEOS, or mixtures of TEOS/OtEOS (mole ratio 1:1) as well as TEOS/MtEOS (mole ratio 1:3) were obtained, showing the influence of the alkoxysilane used [19]. It can be seen that the films obtained from pure TEOS sol have smooth, glassy surface (Figure 1).…”

“…Information about the surface morphology including surface area and roughness is provided by an atomic force microscopy, AFM [18][19][20]. The united power of the SEM, TEM, and AFM methods contributes to the examination of the surface morphology of thin films prepared by the sol-gel technique using different types of precursors and different parameters of the dipcoating deposition procedure [19].…”

“…. SEM images (10,000×) of the matrices, produced by dip coating from TEOS/MtEOS sol at different withdrawal speed and number of immersions, P [19].…”

“…The united power of the SEM, TEM, and AFM methods contributes to the examination of the surface morphology of thin films prepared by the sol-gel technique using different types of precursors and different parameters of the dipcoating deposition procedure [19].…”