Nanostructured Sol-Gel Coatings for Optical Applications

Well-ordered organosilicate mesoporous coatings with the 3D-hexagonal symmetry are prepared by the sol-gel technique. These films contain high amounts of hydrophobic methyl groups at the pore surface and do not absorb moisture making possible their use as low-index layers in interferential antireflective devices. Besides, these films also appear as good hosts for photochromic dyes leading to coatings for optical switching devices. Methyl groups and mesoporosity offer optimized environments for photochromic dyes dispersed by multi-impregnation technique.