Facile preparation of wear-resistant and anti-fingerprint hard coating with chemisorption of fluorosilane by simple wet coating

Epoxy-siloxane hybrid hard coating (HC) has been reported to be applicable to foldable display cover window film due to its glass-like hardness and plastic-like flexibility, which are trade-off characteristics. In addition, to provide an anti-fingerprint (AF) function with abrasion resistance to HC, the addition of a durable hydrophobic function on the HC surface is essential. Herein, durable hydrophobic and abrasion resistant F-HC was reported by chemical adsorption of fluorosilane on HC with simple wet coating. TEOS-derived silica primer increased the hydroxyl groups (–OH) on surface of HC, then it improved the sol-gel condensation with fluorosilane. The fluoro-treatment reduced the coefficient of friction to maintain hydrophobicity (<10% of the initial water contact angle) and optical transparency (~90%) after 5000 cycles of a steel-wool test and 2000 cycles of an eraser abrasion test. Performance was dependent on plasma treatment, annealing condition, and pretreatment on the HC surface for the stronger chemisorption of fluorosilane.