Abstract: Provided are methods of forming stacks comprising a substrate and one or more sol-gel layers disposed on the substrate. Also provided are stacks formed by these methods. The sol-gel layers in these stacks, especially outer layers, may have a porosity of less than 1% or even less than 0.5%. In some embodiments, these layers may have a surface roughness (Ra) of less than 1 nanometers. The sol-gel layers may be formed using radiative curing and/or thermal curing at temperatures of between 400° C. and 700° C. or higher. These temperatures allow application of sol-gel layers on new types of substrates. A sol-gel solution, used to form these layers, may have colloidal nanoparticles with a size of less than 20 Angstroms on average. This small size and narrow size distribution is believed to control the porosity of the resulting sol-gel layers.

Abstract: Provided are hybrid sol-gel coating materials and method of synthesizing such materials. Also, provided are methods of forming hybrid sol-gel coatings from such coating materials. In some embodiments, a hybrid sol-gel coating material includes a hydrolyzed inorganic component and organic component. Functional groups of the inorganic component may react with each other in a sol-gel condensation reaction, while functional groups of the organic component may be subjected to free-radical induced polymerization thereby bonding the inorganic and organic components in a resulting hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel coating. The coating material may also comprise nanoparticles, which may be bonded to other components in a resulting coating. The inorganic component may be a silane or, more specifically, tetraethoxysilane, while the organic component may be an acrylate or, more specifically, mercapto functionalized polyester acrylate, aromatic epoxy acrylate, and/or polyurethane acrylate.