Role of catalyst on refractive index tunability of porous silica antireflective coatings by sol-gel technique

摘要

Porous silica coatings were prepared by acid- and base-catalyzed sol-gel method. Surface morphology studies by atomic force microscopy showed smooth surface for acid-catalyzed coatings while base catalysis resulted in coarse particle morphology. On increasing the tetraethyl orthosilicate to base molar ratio from 1:1 to 1:3, the mean particle size of the coating shifted from 30 to 100 nm while the pore size varied from 4.7 to 14 nm. Infrared spectral analysis exhibited a change in the ratio of integrated peak intensities of Si-O-Si to Si-OH in acid-and base-catalyzed silica coatings. Textural studies showed an increase in particle size and porosity with base concentration. Optical transmission and surface roughness of base-catalyzed samples were found to be higher than that of acid-catalyzed silica coatings.