Enhance the Rigidity of Hydrophobic Nano-Films from the Addition of Al2O3 via Sol-Gel Process

Hydrophobic nano-films for improving their rigidities now have been developed by the addition of aluminous sol into silica sol via sol-gel process. The Al2O3-SiO2 nano-composite sols were prepared by a mixture of the silica sol and aluminous sol at different molar ratios. Then use a method of the spin-coating to deposite the composite nano-films. The chemical structure, the rigidity and hydrophobicity of the composite nano-films were studied by FT-IR, QHQ pencil hardness tester and the contact-angle machine. The results indicate that the rigidity of the nano-composite films was apparently improved and without obvious changes of hydrophobicity.