Transparent Self-Cleaning Coatings: A Review

Advanced coatings are essential to modern technologies as they optimise surface characteristics for different application scenarios. Transparent and self-cleaning increasingly used protective various applications, such foldable touchscreens, windows, solar panels. Moreover, incorporating other functionalities high hardness, wear resistance, flexibility into transparent is important broadening the use cases. Although many kinds of multifunctional have been developed, it still difficult embody several properties in one coating adequately some properties, hardness flexibility, inherently contrastive. This review first describes basic principles, including wettability, photocatalytic reactions, photo-induced hydrophilic phenomena, implication self-cleaning. The desired then listed methods evaluating used. Recent progress preparation coatings, sol–gel, dip/spin, chemical vapour deposition (CVD) methods, also presented. Magnetron sputtering (MS) technology widely preparation. Compared with chemosynthesis CVD, MS time-saving, suitable industrial production, environmentally friendly. Coatings prepared by usually possess excellent mechanical properties. Thus, we highlight current research status according multilayer design structure their optical ability can be controlled combining materials. Finally, materials TiO2 through a obtain overall discussed.