Improvement of the surface properties of polycarbonate by organic-inorganic hybrid coatings

Organic-inorganic hybrids (ceramers) were prepared through the sol-gel process with opportune alkoxysilane-terminated polymer chains as the organic phase and tetraethoxysilane as the inorganic network precursor. The consolidation process, used to reach a high degree of crosslinking between the two phases, was carried out with either conventional oven heating or microwave irradiation. High conversion degrees were obtained with both treatments even when microwave postcuring turned out to be much faster than conventional heating (5-10 s vs 40 min). Scratch-test and photooxidation investigations showed a significant improvement in scratch, yellowing, and photodegradation resistance for coated polycarbonate