Mechanical properties of silica–(meth)acrylate hybrid coatings on polycarbonate substrate

The mechanical properties of hybrid cross-linked coatings consisting of polymer (meth)acrylate matrices with dispersed nano-sized silica inorganic particles were determined. The coatings were deposited on polycarbonate substrates. It was shown that reliable elastic modulus and hardness data can be obtained from load and depth sensing indentation for a broad range of filler content when an indentation rate above 2 nm/s is used. The influences of a variation in coating thickness, filler content and chemical composition on these properties were combined with ATR-FTIR, TGA and TEM morphological analyses of the coatings. These analyses showed that filler content and chemical composition influence the mechanical properties of the silica–(meth)acrylate hybrid coatings in a complex way.