Silica-Silsesquioxane Hard Coating for Foldable Windows
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional window coatings for flexible display devices face challenges in achieving a balance between surface hardness, impact resistance, and flexibility, particularly in maintaining reliability and mechanical properties during repeated use and bending or folding.
Innovation Solution
A hard coating composition comprising a silica-silsesquioxane-based resin, a photoinitiator, and a diluting monomer, such as 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate and tetrahydrofurfuryl acrylic acid, which forms a hard coating layer with excellent surface hardness and flexibility, allowing for good folding properties and mechanical integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional window coatings are used to provide surface hardness and impact resistance, then the window has good mechanical strength, but the window loses flexibility and cannot withstand bending or folding
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a composite coating layer combining organosilane resin and inorganic silica particles. The organosilane provides flexibility and adhesion to the glass substrate, while the silica particles contribute surface hardness and impact resistance. This composite structure resolves the contradiction by integrating materials with complementary properties.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies the chemical composition parameters of the coating by controlling the ratio of organosilane resin to silica particles, and by adjusting the molecular structure of the organosilane. These parameter changes enable the coating to achieve both flexibility (through resin content) and hardness (through silica content), resolving the flexibility-strength trade-off.
2Strength
If a hard coating layer with high surface hardness is formed, then the window has excellent mechanical properties, but the window shows poor folding properties and deformation under repeated use
Solution Approach 1:
The coating layer is formulated as a composite of organosilane resin (providing flexibility and deformation resistance) and inorganic silica particles (providing surface hardness). This composite approach allows the coating to maintain surface hardness while gaining the flexibility and reliability needed for folding applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The coating exhibits local quality differentiation where the organosilane resin phase provides flexibility and adhesion at the molecular level, while the silica particle phase provides localized hardness. This spatial and functional differentiation within the coating structure enables simultaneous achievement of hardness and folding reliability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the window coating is made more flexible to allow folding, then the window has good folding properties, but the surface hardness and impact resistance are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a composite formulation where flexible organosilane resin and hard silica particles are combined in optimized ratios. The resin matrix provides the flexibility needed for folding, while the dispersed silica particles maintain surface hardness and impact resistance, thus resolving the flexibility-strength contradiction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes the compositional parameters of the coating by adjusting the weight ratio of organosilane resin to silica particles, and by modifying the crosslinking density of the resin. These parameter adjustments enable the coating to achieve sufficient flexibility for folding while maintaining adequate surface hardness through controlled reinforcement.
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
The coating composition provides a window with enhanced impact resistance and flexibility, maintaining mechanical properties and reliability even after repeated folding and exposure to various environmental conditions.
Implementation Method 1
a photoinitiator, and a diluting monomer... forms a hard coating layer
Data Source
AI summary
A hard coating composition includes a silica-silsesquioxane-based resin, a photoinitiator, and a diluting monomer. The diluting monomer includes at least one of a 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate monomer, a tetrahydrofurfuryl acrylic acid monomer, an isobornyl acrylate monomer, a cyclic trimethylolpropane formal acrylate monomer, and an acryloylmorpholine monomer.