In a known method for producing a quartz glass component, a crystal formation layer containing a crystallization promoter is produced on a coating surface of a base body of quartz glass. Starting therefrom, to provide a method for producing a quartz glass component of improved thermal strength and long-term stability which displays a comparatively small deformation particularly also in the case of rapid heating-up processes, it is suggested according to one aspect that a porous crystal formation layer containing amorphous SiO.sub.2 particles is produced with a mean thickness in the range of 0.1 to 5 mm, and that a substance which contains cesium and/or rubidium is used as the crystallization promoter.

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate and its method of formation is disclosed. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate comprises a solid support, a first noble metal nanoparticles is disposed on the solid support, a porous oxide layer comprising transition metal oxide nanoparticles is disposed on the first noble metal nanoparticles and a second noble metal nanoparticles is disposed on the porous oxide layer. The porous oxide layer prevents contact between the first noble metal nanoparticles and the second noble metal nanoparticles and has a mean pore size of 2 to 30 nm.

Disclosed are a hybrid structure using a graphene-carbon nanotube and a perovskite solar cell using the same. The hybrid structure includes a graphene-carbon nanotube formed by laminating a second graphene coated with a polymer on an upper surface of a first graphene coated with a carbon nanotube. The perovskite solar cell includes: a substrate; a first electrode formed on the substrate and including a fluorine doped thin oxide (FTO); an electron transfer layer formed on the first electrode and including a compact-titanium oxide (c-TiO.sub.2); a mesoporous-titanium oxide (m-TiO.sub.2) formed on the electron transfer layer; a perovskite layer formed on the m-TiO.sub.2 and including a perovskite compound; and a graphene-carbon nanotube hybrid structure formed on the perovskite layer.

Coated glass panes having a glass pane and a coating in at least one region of at least one side of the glass pane. The glass pane is composed of glass with SiO.sub.2 and B.sub.2O.sub.3. The coating includes first coating applied in at least one region of the at least one side. The first coating has a binder with SiO.sub.2 and a pigment. The glass pane, in the at least one region, has a flexural strength between at least 5 and at most 170 MPa.

Method for producing a photochromic material and a component including the photochromic material, where the method comprises the steps of:-first the formation on a substrate of a layer of an essentially oxygen free metal hydride with a predetermined thickness using a physical vapor deposition process; and -second exposing the metal hydride layer to oxygen where the oxygen reacts with the metal hydride, resulting in a material with photochromic properties.

A process for obtaining a material including a textured glass substrate coated, on at least one of its textured faces, with an antireflective coating of sol-gel type based on porous silica, includes a stage of application, to the at least one textured face of the substrate, of a solution containing at least one silica precursor and at least one pore-forming agent, then a heat treatment stage targeted at consolidating the antireflective coating. Before the application stage, the glass substrate is subjected to a preheating stage, so that the at least one textured face intended to be coated with the antireflective coating has a temperature within a range extending from 30° C. to 100° C. immediately before the application stage.

A method for preparing an optically transparent, superomniphobic coating on a substrate, such as an optical substrate, is disclosed. The method includes providing a glass layer disposed on a substrate, the glass layer having a first side adjacent the substrate and an opposed second side, the glass layer comprising 45-85 wt. % silicon oxide in a first glass phase and 10-40 wt. % boron oxide in a second glass phase, such that a glass layer has a composition in a spinodal decomposition region. The method further includes heating the second side of the glass layer to form a phase-separated portion of the layer, the phase-separated portion comprising an interpenetrating network of silicon oxide domains and boron oxide domains, and removing at least a portion of the boron oxide domains from the phase-separated portion to provide a graded layer disposed on the substrate. The graded layer has a first side disposed adjacent the substrate, the first side comprising 45-85 wt. % silicon oxide and 10-40 wt. % boron oxide, and opposite the first side, a porous second side comprising at least 45 wt. % silicon oxide and no more than 5 wt. % boron oxide.

The invention provides a method of processing glass that involves forming a flexible gel layer on a flexible glass sheet to create a glass-gel sheet; rolling-up the glass-gel sheet into the form of a roll; placing the roll in a dryer; and drying the flexible gel layer so as to form a flexible aerogel layer. Some embodiments provide a glazing unit that includes a glass-aerogel sheet located between first and second panes of the glazing unit, where the glass-aerogel sheet includes a flexible glass sheet and a flexible aerogel layer on the flexible glass sheet. In such embodiments, the first and second panes each have thicknesses that are greater than a thickness of the flexible glass sheet. Other embodiments provide a glass assembly having a flexible aerogel layer on a flexible glass sheet, with the flexible glass sheet being laminated to a glass pane.

A composite membrane for hydrogen separation and purification, including: a modified and activated support, a Palladium (Pd) layer, and an interstice layer between the second surface-modifying layer and the Pd layer. The support includes a support substrate, a first surface-modifying layer on the support substrate, and a second surface-modifying layer on the first surface-modifying layer.

Provided are methods of forming stacks comprising a substrate and one or more sol-gel layers disposed on the substrate. Also provided are stacks formed by these methods. The sol-gel layers in these stacks, especially outer layers, may have a porosity of less than 1% or even less than 0.5%. In some embodiments, these layers may have a surface roughness (R.sub.a) of less than 1 nanometers. The sol-gel layers may be formed using radiative curing and/or thermal curing at temperatures of between 400° C. and 700° C. or higher. These temperatures allow application of sol-gel layers on new types of substrates. A sol-gel solution, used to form these layers, may have colloidal nanoparticles with a size of less than 20 Angstroms on average. This small size and narrow size distribution is believed to control the porosity of the resulting sol-gel layers.