UV-reflecting sintered nano-TiO₂ thin film on glass for anti-bird strike application

ABSTRACT

A nanocrystalline TiO₂ glass coating was developed by sintering sol–gel derived thin film at 450°C. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the absence of hydroxide gel and unreacted precursor as well as the presence of TiO₂. The crystalline phase was predominantly anatase as identified from the XRD measurement and the crystallite size obtained from Scherrer’s equation was 166 nm. This was in good agreement with the TiO₂ nanoparticle size of 148 nm obtained from BET adsorption experiment. The approximate BET surface coverage was 10.38 m²g⁻¹ and the total pore volume was 0.02 cc g⁻¹. Most importantly, the sintered TiO₂ coated quartz glass showed a significant increase of 27.8% in UV reflectance, as obtained from UV-vis measurement and subsequent Kubelka–Munk function. This result is particularly advantageous to prevent bird-strike against high-rise glass buildings and windows.

KEYWORDS:

• sol–gel
• glass coating
• nanocrystalline TiO₂
• UV reflectance
• sintering
• bird strike
• XRD
• BET

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Gregory Shaw in Cardiff University for carrying out the UV-vis experiments, Athanasios Koutsianos in Swansea University for performing the BET experiments and Francesco Mazzali in Swansea University for carrying out the XRD measurements. The author would also like to acknowledge the receipt of a research grant award as principal investigator from Ser Cymru National Research Network (project NRN 169), a part of which was utilized in this project as well.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author would also like to acknowledge the receipt of a research grant award as principal investigator from Ser Cymru National Research Network (project NRN 169), a part of which was utilized in this project as well.