Enhancement of Fracture Toughness of Sol-Gel Silica Glass Coating by Small Amount of Silver Particle Dispersion

Glass coatings find application across diverse fields, offering chemical resistance, insulation, and hardness to substrates. Toughness enhancement of glass coatings is strongly required to maintain these functions in the practical applications. In this study, we propose a novel approach to improve fracture toughness of glass coating by incorporating silver particles into it prepared via the sol-gel method. Samples with 0–2.0 vol% of 73 nm and 730 nm Ag particles in the precursor solution were obtained. The resulting samples exhibited high transparency, minimal change in Young's modulus, and considerably improved fracture toughness. At 73 nm and 730 nm, the maximum fracture toughness occurred at 0.5 vol% and 1.0 vol%, respectively, with a 1.4- and 1.8-fold increase compared to the original coating. This approach shows promise for enhancing glass coating toughness with minimal additive amounts and negligible loss of coating properties.