Preparation of Silica Coatings Heavily Doped with Spiropyran Using Perhydropolysilazane as the Silica Source and Their Photochromic Properties

Silica coatings doped with spiropyran (SP) were prepared using xylene solutions of perhydropolysilazane (PHPS) as the silica source, where the SP-doped PHPS coatings were prepared by spin-coating and the PHPS-to-silica conversion was achieved by exposing the coatings to the vapor from aqueous ammonia at room temperature. The films could be heavily doped with SP at SP/(SP + PHPS) mass ratio as high as 0.2. The as-deposited SP-doped PHPS films were transparent and light-yellow, which turned to red as the PHPS-to-silica conversion proceeded, where the absorbance at 500 nm increased. When the films were stored in air in the dark for 73 h after the exposure treatment, the absorbance at 500 nm further increased, where the film turned from red to dark red. The SP-doped silica coatings thus obtained showed reversible photochromic reaction, where the absorbance at 500 nm decreased and increased when the films were irradiated with visible and ultraviolet light, respectively. The pencil hardness of the films was higher than 9H at a load of 1 kg, while significant amount of SP was leached out when the films were soaked in xylene.