UV-reflecting sintered nano-TiO2thin film on glass for anti-bird strike application

ABSTRACTA nanocrystalline TiO2glass coating was developed by sintering sol–gel derived thin film at 450°C. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the absence of hydroxide gel and unreacted precursor as well as the presence of TiO2. The crystalline phase was predominantly anatase as identified from the XRD measurement and the crystallite size obtained from Scherrer’s equation was 166 nm. This was in good agreement with the TiO2nanoparticle size of 148 nm obtained from BET adsorption experiment. The approximate BET surface coverage was 10.38 m2 g−1and the total pore volume was 0.02 cc g−1. Most importantly, the sintered TiO2coated quartz glass showed a significant increase of 27.8% in UV reflectance, as obtained from UV-vis measurement and subsequent Kubelka–Munk function. This result is particularly advantageous to prevent bird-strike against high-rise glass buildings and windows.