Coloured Glass via Nanoparticle Oxide Coating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for producing colored glass are inflexible and costly, requiring the addition of metal oxides to the glass melt, leading to contamination and significant waste during color changes, which limits productivity and adaptability to changing demand.
Innovation Solution
A process involving the deposition of a thin layer of metallic nanoparticles dispersed in an inorganic oxide matrix on a glass substrate, allowing for adjustable colorimetry without altering the glass production process, using cathode sputtering and plasma-enhanced techniques to achieve a plasmon absorption peak in the visible range.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If metal oxides are added to the glass melt to produce colored glass, then the desired color is achieved, but the production process becomes inflexible and costly with significant waste during color changes
Solution Approach 1:
The invention separates the coloring function from the glass production process by applying a thin-film coating after the glass is formed, rather than mixing pigments throughout the entire glass melt. This segmentation allows the glass production line to remain unchanged while the coloring step becomes an independent, flexible post-processing operation that can be adjusted without wasting glass batches.
Solution Approach 2:
The thin-film coating is deposited on the glass surface in advance as a permanent layer, enabling color changes to be made by applying different coating layers rather than discarding and remelting glass batches. This preliminary action of coating allows rapid adaptation to color demands without the need to produce transition panes or waste significant material.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a sol-gel polymerization process with metallic particles is used to deposit a colored coating, then color adjustment is possible, but the process is expensive and cannot deposit homogeneous layers on large glass substrates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the complex sol-gel chemical polymerization process with a physical vapor deposition method (sputtering). This substitution eliminates the need for metallic particles and complex chemical reactions, enabling cost-effective deposition of homogeneous thin films on large-area glass substrates while maintaining adjustable colorimetric properties through controlled composition of the deposited oxide layers.
3Adaptability or versatility
If vacuum sputtering or PE-CVD is used to deposit a colored layer, then flexible color adjustment is achieved, but the processes require vacuum installations and have limited flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a sputtering process that can deposit multiple different oxide materials (such as titanium oxide, iron oxide, nickel oxide, cobalt oxide, copper oxide) using the same vacuum installation and process parameters. This multi-functionality allows flexible adjustment of color characteristics by simply changing the target material or deposition conditions, while the vacuum system itself remains a standard, relatively simple industrial component rather than a complex specialized installation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method enables flexible and economical production of colored glass with adjustable color characteristics, reducing waste and allowing for rapid adaptation to changing color demands without the need for intermediate glass production steps.
Implementation Method 1
said layer being made of a material comprising metallic nanoparticles dispersed in an inorganic matrix of an oxide... said material exhibiting a plasmonic absorption peak in the visible range
Implementation Method 2
using cathode sputtering and plasma-enhanced techniques to achieve a plasmon absorption peak in the visible range
Implementation Method 3
using cathode sputtering and plasma-enhanced techniques to achieve a plasmon absorption peak in the visible range
Data Source
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AI summary
Glazing comprising a glass substrate on which a coating comprising at least one layer is deposited, said layer being made of a material comprising metal nanoparticles dispersed in an inorganic matrix of an oxide in which said metal nanoparticles are made of a metal selected from the group consisting of silver, gold, platinum, copper and nickel or an alloy consisting of at least two of these metals, in which said matrix comprises, is substantially constituted by or consists of an oxide of at least one element selected from the group consisting of titanium, silicon, zirconium and in which the atomic ratio M/Me in said material is less than 1.5, M representing all the atoms of the elements of said group of titanium, silicon, zirconium present in said layer and Me representing all the atoms of the metals of the group consisting of silver, gold, platinum, copper and nickel present in said layer.