Field Test of Self-Cleaning Zr-Modified-TiO2-SiO2 Films on Glass with a Demonstration of Their Anti-Fogging Effect

The number of commercial products claiming self-cleaning properties is rising and testing of long-term activity and durability of such coatings needs to be addressed more. The time-dependent changes of different characteristics like haze, transparency, and color are essential for transparent glazing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Materials 2019-07, Vol.12 (13), p.2196
Main Authors: Šuligoj, Andraž, Pliekhova, Olena, Vodišek, Nives, Mihelčič, Mohor, Surca, Angelja, Kunič, Roman, Šubic, Barbara, Starman, Jernej, Ugovšek, Aleš, Lavrenčič Štangar, Urška
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Catalytic activity
Cleaning
Exposure
Field tests
Float process glass
Fogging
Glazing
Haze
Inclination angle
Laboratories
Laboratory tests
Light
Photocatalysis
Silicon dioxide
Spraying
Thin films
Time dependence
Titanium
Titanium dioxide
Zirconium
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Summary:The number of commercial products claiming self-cleaning properties is rising and testing of long-term activity and durability of such coatings needs to be addressed more. The time-dependent changes of different characteristics like haze, transparency, and color are essential for transparent glazing materials. Herein, we aimed to examine whether the laboratory results obtained on the Zr-modified-titania-silica (TiZr) self-cleaning materials would translate to larger-scale outdoor-exposed testing. TiZr thin films were deposited via spraying onto float glass window surfaces and exposed into three different environments for 20 months. For comparison, a commercially available active SGG BIOCLEANTM glass and standard float glass were simultaneously exposed in the same conditions. It was shown that the self-cleaning property of either a commercial product or TiZr-coated float glass was not considerably effective in real field test conditions, although the previous laboratory tests showed pronounced photocatalytic activity of TiZr thin films. The inclination angle; however, was shown to have a considerable effect on the self-cleaning ability of samples, as did the rain patterns during the testing period. On the other hand, the anti-fogging effect of our TiZr material was very well expressed in controlled laboratory conditions (measuring droplet formation time) as well as in the real outdoor environment.
ISSN:1996-1944
1996-1944
DOI:10.3390/ma12132196