Octadecanthiol for tarnish-resistant silver coatings

摘要

Octadecanethiol self-assembling monolayers have been reported to protect silver against tarnish in typical environments.We have undertaken a study to investigate whether such coatings have potential use for silver-based mirror coatings forastronomy, particularly in instruments where mirror coatings would be protected from dirt and potential mechanicaldamage. We find that simple treatment of bare silver with octadecanethiol does significantly reduce the rate of tarnishwhile preserving silver’s excellent reflectivity. We describe the simple process of application, how the coatings areevaluated, and directions for further investigations.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.