Coated article, coating liquid composition, and method for producing coated article

Abstract

The invention is an coated article composed of a substrate and an organic-inorganic composite film, which is coated on the substrate and has an oxide of a cation atom capable of forming an oxide network coated on the surface of the substrate, and the same has a part of oxygen of the oxide substituted by an organic group, wherein the organic-inorganic composite film includes alkali metal oxides at a ratio of 0.1 through 30% of the total number of the alkali metal atoms and the cation atoms expressed in terms of the number of alkali metal atoms, and the article coated with a high-performance organic-inorganic composite film, is able to withstand outdoor uses and has high hardness.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 472,289, filed on Sep. 20, 2003, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. application Ser. No. 10 / 472,289 is a U.S. national phase application of International Application PCT / JPO 2 / 02709, with an international filing date of Mar. 20, 2002, and further claims priority to Japan Application no. 2001-81067, filed in Japan on Mar. 21, 2001, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to an article coated with an organic-inorganic composite film, which is formed on the surface of a substrate such as glass, ceramic, plastic or metal, a composition for coating an organic-inorganic composite film, and a method for producing a coated article. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Such a technology has been known, by which the surface of a substrate is improved by providing an organic-inorganic composite film having an inor...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] It is possible for an organic-inorganic composite film according to the invention to be caused to include an alkaline earth metal oxide. The alkaline earth metal is intensive in terms of ionic characteristics as in the alkali metal. By causing the composite film to include an alkaline earth metal oxide, it is possible to increase the abrasion-resisting property of the film without spoiling the low temperature hardening property by introduction of an alkali metal. Although the organic-inorganic composite film according to the invention includes an organic group as described later, the organic group exists on the surface at a higher density than in inner portion of the organic-inorganic composite film. The density of the organic group of the film surface is further heightened by doping of an alkaline earth metal oxide. As a result, functions of the organic group can be further increased. For example, where the organic group is, for example, a water repellent group, the contact angle of the film is further increased by doping of an alkaline earth metal oxide, wherein the rolling property of water drops can be further improved.

[0018] An organic-inorganic composite film according to the invention includes oxides of cation atoms by which oxide networks are formed. Silicon, titanium, zirconium, aluminum, germanium, tantalum, tin, antimony, cerium, lanthanum, tungsten, indium, and boron, etc., may be listed as the cation atoms. Among these constituents, silicon maybe preferably used because condensates and crystal are in comparison rarely produced in a film during forming the same, and a film free from any crack can be easily obtained.

[0021] Thus, according to the invention, by containing alkali metal ions or alkali metal ions and alkaline earth metal ions, it is possible to obtain a film having a high hardness that cannot be obtained by prior arts, by drying or heating at a temperature lower than the decomposing temperature of an organic group contributing to reforming of the surface of a substrate. As a result, the durability performance of organic-inorganic compound films can be remarkably improved.

[0022] Such low temperature hardening performance is not impaired even in a case where transition metal ions, etc., are introduced into the film for the purpose of, for example, adding a feature of controlling the refractive index of the film and controlling the visible light transmissivity in addition to a reforming property brought about by the organic groups. That is, by causing the transition metal ions and alkali metal oxides (or both alkali metal oxides and alkaline earth metal oxides) to coexist, which can manifest the target feature, it is possible to obtain a combined-function film that has very high hardness by drying and heating at a temperature less than 300° C. and can include a reforming property by an organic group and a feature brought about by the transition metal ions. It is possible to obtain an organic-inorganic composite film colored by doping, for example, cobalt oxide, iron oxide, nickel oxide, and copper oxide thereto.

[0042] By employing these fluoroalkyl group-contained silane compounds, it is possible to render the surface of a substrate to have water repellency. Further, where trichlorosilane, trialkoxysilane, etc., that have a fluoroalkyl group including ten or more fluorine atoms are used, the film can be concurrently provided with excellent water repellency and durability features. In particular, CF3(CF2)7(CH2)2Si(OCH3)3 (heptadecafluorodecyltrimethoxysilane) and CF3(CF2)7(CH2)2SiCl3 (heptadecafluorodecyltrichlorosilane) may be preferably used.

Problems solved by technology

The hardness of the porous silica film is not very high because of its porous structure.