Described herein are methods for coating a substrate with a photocatalytic compound, and photocatalytic elements prepared by these methods.

A casting component and method for the application of an anticorrosive layer to a substrate, such as the casting component, are provided. The casting component for a device for casting a metal melt includes a metallic basic body and a melt contact surface region which is exposed to the metal melt during casting operation. In the casting component, the metallic basic body is provided in the melt contact surface region with an anticorrosive layer which is resistant to the metal melt and which is formed, using microparticles and/or nanoparticles of one or more substances from a substance group which includes borides, nitrides and carbides of the transition metals and their alloys and also of boron and silicon and Al.sub.2O.sub.3.

The present invention relates in part to short-wave IR (SWIR) materials comprising generic mixed salts of empirical formula A.sub.aB.sub.bM.sub.cX.sub.d that are composition-dependent, broadband, and tunable. These materials have unique light absorbance wavelengths from 0.4 to 2.6 m, including both the visible and SWIR. The preparation procedure for the SWIR materials is simple, including the use of widely available, cheap, and non-toxic precursors, unlike existing state of the art alloy SWIR materials. These novel materials have broad applications in security, surveillance, military, machine vision, photovoltaic solar cells, medical treatments, spectroscopy detector, and thermography. The present invention also relates to methods of fabricating a film comprising the composition of the invention and to photovoltaic stacks comprising the composition of the invention.

Methods are provided for selectively depositing a material on a first surface of a substrate relative to a second, different surface of the substrate. The selectively deposited material can be, for example, a metal, metal oxide, or dielectric material.

The present disclosure relates to a self-supporting electrocatalytic material and a preparation method thereof, the self-supporting electrocatalytic material is a Cu.sub.2O/WO.sub.3/CF self-supporting electrocatalytic material. The Cu.sub.2O/WO.sub.3/CF self-supporting electrocatalytic material comprises: a foamed copper substrate, and Cu.sub.2O and WO.sub.3 grown in situ on the foamed copper substrate.

An alkoxysilane is contacted with water and an inorganic acid to form a first composition. A zirconium alkoxide is contacted with an organic acid to form a second composition. One or more alkoxysilanes and an organic acid are contacted with a mixture of the first and second compositions to form a sol-gel composition, to which a photoinitiator is added. The sol-gel composition has a ratio of a number of moles of silicon to a number of moles of zirconium (n.sub.Si/n.sub.Zr) ranging from about 2 to about 10. The sol-gel composition is applied on a substrate (e.g., an aluminum alloy substrate) multiple times to form multiple sol-gel layers, and at least one of the sol-gel layers is cured by UV radiation. The multiple sol-gel layers are then thermally cured.

A layered tetravalent metal phosphate composition (e.g., a layered zirconium phosphate composition) and a first corrosion inhibitor (e.g., cerium (III), a vanadate, a molybdate, a tungstate, a manganous, a manganate, a permanganate, an aluminate, a phosphonate, a thiazole, a triazole, and/or an imidazole) is dispersed in an aqueous solution and stirred to form a first solution. A precipitate of the first solution is collected and washed to form a first corrosion inhibiting material (CIM), which includes the first corrosion inhibitor intercalated in the layered tetravalent metal phosphate composition. The first CIM is added to a first sol-gel composition to form a first CIM-containing sol-gel composition. The first CIM-containing sol-gel composition is applied on a substrate to form a CIM-containing sol-gel layer, cured by UV radiation, and thermally cured to form a corrosion-resistant coating. One or more additional sol-gel composition may be applied on the substrate.

An electrode for gas evolution in electrolytic processes having a metal substrate and a coating formed on the substrate, the coating having at least a catalytic porous outer layer containing regions of porous nickel oxide dispersed within a solid nickel oxide binder, and a method for the production of the electrode from preformed nickel vanadium oxide particles.

The invention provides a method for providing a luminescent particle (100) with a hybrid coating, the method comprising: (i) providing a luminescent core (102) comprising a primer layer (105) on the luminescent core (102); (ii) providing a main ALD coating layer (120) onto the primer layer (105) by application of a main atomic layer deposition process, the main ALD coating layer (120) comprising a multilayer (1120) with two or more layers (1121) having different chemical compositions, and wherein in the main atomic layer deposition process a metal oxide precursor is selected from a group of metal oxide precursors comprising Al, Zn, Hf, Ta, Zr, Ti, Sn, Nb, Y, Ga, and V; (iii) providing a main sol-gel coating layer (130) onto the main ALD-coating layer (120) by application of a main sol-gel coating process, the main sol-gel coating layer (130) having a chemical composition different from one or more of the layers (1121) of the multilayer (1120).

The present invention relates to a process for preparing an anti-reflective sol-gel coating composition comprising: a) mixing a hydrolysable silicon alkoxide, (C.sub.1-C.sub.8)alcohols, an aqueous solution of one acid catalyst; and one or more surfactants of formula (II) wherein: R.sup.9 is (C.sub.1-C.sub.30)alkyl, and m is an integer selected from 2 to 40; the concentration of the surfactant of formula (II) is from 150 to 300 g/L; the molar ratio hydrolysable silicon alkoxide and aqueous solution of acid catalyst is from 0.15 to 1; the molar ratio hydrolysable silicon alkoxide and (C.sub.1-C.sub.8)alcohol is from 0.15 to 0.30, and molar ratio hydrolysable silicon alkoxide and the surfactant of formula (II) is from 7 to 11.5; b) preparing a second mixture by mixing (C.sub.1-C.sub.8)alcohols, and an aqueous solution of one acid catalyst; c) adding the second mixture to the mixture of step a); and adding (C.sub.1-C.sub.8)alcohols until the molar ratio hydrolysable silicon alkoxide and (C.sub.1-C.sub.8)alcohol is from 0.025 to 0.100 and the composition thus obtained. It also relates to a process for coating a substrate; and the anti-reflective coating on a substrate or the anti-reflective stack on a substrate thus obtained. HO(CH.sub.2CH.sub.20)mR.sup.9 (II)