Spectroscopic studies of triethoxysilane sol–gel and coating process

Silica sol–gels have been prepared under different conditions using triethoxysilane (TES) as precursor. The prepared sol–gels have been used to coat aluminum for corrosion protection. Vibrational assignments have been made for most vibration bands of TES, TES sol–gel, TES sol–gel-coated aluminum and xerogel. It has been noticed that air moisture may have helped the hydrolysis of the thin coating films. Xerogels have been obtained from the sol–gel under different temperature conditions and the resulting samples have been characterized by using infrared and Raman spectroscopic methods. IR data indicate that the sol–gel process is incomplete under the ambient conditions although an aqueous condition can have slightly improved the process. Two nonequivalent silicon atoms have been identified from the collected 29Si NMR spectra for the sol–gel, supporting the result derived from the IR data. The frequency of SiH bending vibration has been found to be more sensitive to the skeletal structure than that of the SiH stretching vibration. A higher temperature condition could favor the progression of hydrolysis and condensation. A temperature higher than 300 °C would cause sample decomposition without seriously damaging the silica network. From infrared intensity measurements and thermo-gravimetric analyses, the fractions of incomplete hydrolysis and condensation species have been estimated to be 4% and 3%, respectively. Electrochemical data have shown that the sol–gel coating significantly improves the corrosion protection properties of aluminum.