Synthesis and characterization of silane based binder for the amorphous metal ribbon

Over the last few decades, amorphous steel has been gaining more and more interest as a key material for modern electrical transformers. Amorphous steel has already excellent electromagnetic properties, however, the efficiency of the transformer core can be further enhanced by the mechanical strengthening achieved by using a specially designed bonding material. Such an advanced material must combine numerous functionalities. Good surface adhesion is one of the most crucial characteristics of the binder. The presented work contains the results of research on synthesized double-layered binder based on the tetraethyl orthosilicate and 1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane and its binding properties to an amorphous metal substrate. The binder layers were deposited on an amorphous metal Metglas 2605 HB1M ribbon by dip coating method. A range of methods was used to examine the quality of the layers, its structure,thermal expansion coefficient and the forces causing delamination. The obtained results clearly evidence the studied hybrid layer made of tetraethyl orthosilicate and 1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane as a suitable, good quality binder for mechanical strengthening of electrical devices made of amorphous metal ribbon.