Development of high dispersed TiO_2 paste for transparent screen-printable self-cleaning coatings on glass

摘要

This paper reports a cheap and facile method to fabricate transparent self-cleaning coatings on glass by screen-printing high dispersed TiO _2 paste. Three kinds of ZrO_2 beads with diameter of 2, 1, and 0.1-0.2 mm were utilized to investigate their influence on the grinding and dispersion of the commercial TiO_2 powder in the ball mill. From the SEM images, surface profiler and transmittance spectrum it could be demonstrated that the smallest ZrO_2 bead with the diameter of 0.1-0.2 mm was the best candidate to disperse the TiO_2 powder into nanoscale size to make the high dispersed TiO_2 paste which was the key factor to achieve a smooth, high transparent TiO_2 coating. The surface wettability measurement showed that all the screen-printed coatings had super hydrophilic surfaces, which was independent to the surface morphology. However, the coating with the highest transparency showed the lowest photocatalytic activity which is mainly due to the light loss.