Study on in-situ growth of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) layer on kapton surface and the properties of SiO2/POSS coatings

Abstract

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) is used as a transition layer to enhance the adhesion between SiO2 coating and polyimide (Kapton) film in order to solve problems such as cracking and peeling of coatings. Passivation layer on the Kapton surface was removed by 0.05 mol L−1 NaOH solution under hydrothermal conditions, and an amine-POSS layer formed in situ on the surface by γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). Finally, a SiO2 coating was prepared on it by sol-gel method. The surface morphology of samples was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the wettability was measured by a contact angle instrument. Atomic oxygen (AO) erosion test was performed on a coaxial source device. After 6 h AO irradiation of 5.0 eV average energy and 1.53 × 1016 atoms cm−2s−1 beam density, the erosion yield was 3.61 × 10−24 cm3 atom−1 for Kapton and 0.13 × 10−24 cm3 atom−1 for SiO2/POSS/Kapton, which was only 3.6 % as that of the Kapton, demonstrating excellent anti-AO property of the coated sample.