Conducting, antistatic and antistatic-antiglare coatings made with hybrid sols

In2O3:Sn (ITO) sols made of crystalline nanoparticles fully redispersable in an ethanol solution containing hydrolyzed organosilanes have been developed to obtain conducting transparent and antiglare coatings on plastic and glass substrates at low temperature by spin, dip and spray coating processes. The coatings are cured by UV irradiation and/or by a low temperature heat treatment (T < 130degreesC) in air or reducing atmosphere. The electrical, optical, textural and mechanical properties of the coatings are reported. Transparent conducting coatings exhibiting stable sheet resistance as law as 2 kOmega(square) have been made by spin and dip coating process with a single 500 nm thick layer. Antiglare-antistatic coatings exhibiting similar sheet resistance, a gloss of 60 - 70 GU, a clarity of 75-90% and an optical resolution > 8 lines/mm have been obtained by a spraying process at room temperature. The abrasion resistance of both coatings is in agreement with DIN 58196-G10- class I and the pencil hardness (scratch) according to ASTM D3363-92a is better than F.