Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T01:30:29.546Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Cracking of Sol-Gel Films During Drying

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

Terry J. Garino
Terry J. Garino*
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Electronic Ceramics Division 1842, Albuquerque, NM 87185
Get access

Abstract

The cracking behavior of acidic silica sol-gel films during drying and low temperature heat treatment was studied. Films that cracked during drying exhibited a variety of unusual crack morphologies including sinusoidal cracks and parallel crack pairs. The effects of the water content of the sol and temperature on the critical thickness above which cracking of the films occurred were determined. The critical thickness decreased with increasing water content, most likely because the surface tension of the liquid in the pores of the gel increases with water content and because sols with low water concentrations did not gel until the solvent had evaporated. To determine why the critical thickness decreased with temperature, thermal analysis and shrinkage measurements of both constrained and unconstrained films were performed. Thermogravimetric analysis indicated that rapid weight loss occurred in the temperature region where the rapid decrease in critical thickness occurred. A small amount of shrinkage of the films also occurred in this region. Finally, shrinkage measurements of films debonded from the substrate indicated that shrinkage was very anisotropic with nearly all of the shrinkage occurring in the plane of the film and very little in the thickness direction.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 180: Symposium A – Better Ceramics Through Chemistry IV , 1990 , 497
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Chopra, K.L., Thin Film Phenomena, (McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1969), pp. 311–313.Google Scholar
2. Shyu, S.G., Smith, T.J., Baskaran, S., and Buchanan, R.C. in Better Ceramics Through Chemistry III, edited by Brinker, C.J., Clark, D.E. and Ulrich, D.R. (Mat. Res. Soc. Proc. 121, Pittsburgh, PA 1988) pp. 767–73.Google Scholar
3. Hu, M.S. and Evans, A.G., Acta Metall. 37, 917 (1989).Google Scholar
4. Hu, M.S., Thouless, M.D. and Evans, A.G., Acta Metall. 36, 1301 (1988).Google Scholar
5. Gille, C., Thin Solid Films 111, 201 (1984).Google Scholar
6. Brinker, C.J., Scherer, G.W. and Roth, E.P., J. Non-Cryst. Sol. 72, 345 (1985).Google Scholar
7. James, P.F., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 100, 93 (1988).Google Scholar
8. Orgaz-Orgaz, F., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 100, 115 (1988).Google Scholar
9. Meakin, P., Thin Solid Films 151, 165 (1987).Google Scholar
10. Skjeltorp, A.T. and Meakin, P., Nature 335, 424 (1988).Google Scholar
11. Alnaimi, A. and Berg, S., in The Proc. of the Int. Vac. Congress, 8th, 1980, Vol. 1. Thin Films, ed. by Abeles, F. and Croset, M., p. 336.Google Scholar
12. Weissmantel, C., Schurer, C., Frohlich, F., Crau, P., and Lehmann, H., Thin Solid Films 61, L5 (1979).Google Scholar
13. Brinker, C.J., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 100, 31 (1988).Google Scholar
14. Schlichting, J., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 63, 173 (1984)Google Scholar
15. Scherer, G. W. and Garino, T., J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 68, 216 (1985).Google Scholar
16. Scherer, G.W., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 34, 239 (1979).Google Scholar
17. Garino, T.J. and Bowen, H.K., J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 73, 251 (1990).Google Scholar