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Company |
Sol-Gel |
Hybrid
Technology |
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| Chemalux spin-on AR coating technology
is a sol-gel based hybrid nanotechnology. The coating
process employs the simple spin-on technique which is
used to make scratch resistant coatings on ophthalmic
lenses. The advantages of Chemalux technology based on
unique integrated features of the technologies: Sol-Gel
Technology, Hybrid Technology, Nanotechnology, and Spin
Coating Technology |
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Polymer materials,
for example polycarbonate, are flexible, tough, easy to
process, and have large thermal expansion, but they are
soft, easily scratch. Ceramic materials, such as mineral
glasses, are hard and have small thermal expansion, but
they are brittle, easily crack, especially in thin thickness.
The coatings made with pure ceramic materials (e.g. zirconium
oxide, silicon oxide, titanium oxide) are hard, but brittle.
When the ceramic coating deposited on polymer substrate
such as plastic lenses, the ceramic coating is easily
crazing. In addition, ceramic coatings can not adhere
well, with polymer substrate, and special adhesion promotion
layers are needed to ensure bonding between these two
repelling materials.
Nanotechnology, such as sol-gel, provides solutions to
form novel hybrid ceramic-polymer nanomaterials which
have combined benefits of polymer materials and ceramic
materials: flexible, tough, scratch resistant (hard).
These hybrid
nanomaterials are made by introduction of nanosize ceramic
particles into polymer matrix via the sol-gel process.
The ceramic particles in the hybrid materials provide
(hardness) scratch-resistance, and polymer matrix yields
flexibility and toughness. These hybrid materials have
successfully replaced, vacuum deposited ceramic scratch
resistant coatings on plastic lenses in early stage of
introduction of plastic lenses to replace glass lenses.
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