Dr. rer. nat. Klaus Rose Phone +49 931 4100-626 Fax +49 931 4100-698 klaus.rose@ isc.fraunhofer.de
Fraunhofer-Institut für Silicatforschung ISC Neunerplatz 2 97082 Würzburg
All transparent materials reflect a certain amount of incident light. Surface structures in the submicron range can help to reduce reflections significantly by producing a smooth change in the refractive index at the boundary surface between air and the substrate. Since these structures are smaller than the wavelength of the light, they are invisible. They are imprinted into the ORMOCER® coatings in a production process that involves molding and UV-curing.
Structured ORMOCER® coatings typically reduce the reflection of a glass pane from 8 % to 1 %, thus increasing the transmission from 92 % to 98 %.
The reflection-reducing effect is present from the visible range to the solar range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The efficiency of this method is significantly higher than with commercially available coatings which opens a greater variety of possible application areas. Due to the gentle and quick UV curing procedure, the coatings can also be applied to many transparent plastics. ORMOCER® materials can be easily modified to integrate additional properties such as resistance to water and soiling.
