Anti-fogging nanofibrous sio₂ and nanostructured sio ₂-tio₂ films made by rapid flame deposition and in situ annealing

Transparent, pure SiO₂, TiO₂, and mixed silica-titania films were (stochastically) deposited directly onto glass substrates by flame spray pyrolysis of organometallic solutions (hexamethyldisiloxane or tetraethyl orthosilicate and/or titanium tetra isopropoxide in xylene) and stabilized by in situ flame annealing. Silicon dioxide films consisted of a network of interwoven nanofibers or nanowires several hundred nm long and 10-15 nm thick, as determined by microscopy. These nanowire or nanofibrous films were formed by chemical vapor deposition (surface growth) on bare glass substrates during scalable combustion of precursor solutions at ambient conditions, for the first time to our knowledge, as determined by thermophoretic sampling of the flame aerosol and microscopy. In contrast, titanium dioxide films consisted of nanoparticles 3-5 nm in diameter that were formed in the flame and deposited onto the glass substrate, resulting in highly porous, lace-like nanostructures. Mixed SiO₂-TiO ₂ films (40 mol % SiO₂) had similar morphology to pure TiO₂ films. Under normal solar radiation, all such films having a minimal thickness of about 300 nm completely prevented fogging of the glass substrates. These anti-fogging properties were attributed to inhibition of water droplet formation by such super-hydrophilic coatings as determined by wetting angle measurements. Deactivated (without UV radiation) pure TiO₂ coatings lost their super-hydrophilicity and anti-fogging properties even though their wetting angle was reduced by their nanowicking. In contrast, SiO ₂-TiO₂ coatings exhibited the best anti-fogging performance at all conditions taking advantage of the high surface coverage by TiO₂ nanoparticles and the superhydrophilic properties of SiO ₂ on their surface.