SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SMART FUNCTIONAL COATINGS BY CHEMICAL SOLUTION DEPOSITION METHODS

New coating technology enables the fabrication of low cost structural health monitoring (SHM) and tamper indication devices that can be employed to strengthen national and international safeguards objectives. In particular, such innovations could serve the safeguards community by improving both the timeliness of detection and confidence in verification and monitoring. This work investigates the synthesis of functional surface coatings using chemical solutions deposition methods. Chemical solution deposition has recently received attention in the materials research community due to its unique advantages such as low temperature processing, high homogeneity of final products and the ability to fabricate materials with controlled surface properties and pore structures. The synthesis of functional coatings aimed at modifying the materials conductivity and optical properties was investigated by the incorporation of transition element (e.g. Cr{sup +3}) and rare earth (e.g. Er{sup +3}) serving as dopants in a polymer or gel matrix. The structural and morphological investigation of the as-deposited films was carried out using UV/Vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The as deposited coating was further investigated by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray microscopy