Perfluoropolyether-based organic–inorganic coatings

In the present paper a comprehensive analysis on the preparation and characterization oforganic–inorganic hybrids containing perfluoropolyethers (PFPE) as organic component and silica (in situgenerated from tetraethoxysilane by means of the sol–gel process) as inorganic counterpart is reported.PFPE with different molecular weights and functionalities have been used in order to improve the miscibilitywith respect to other reactants and solvents comprising the final formulation of the coating. Inthis respect, PFPE oligomers have been used with or without chain extension with polycaprolactonesegments. The hybrids have been applied with different techniques onto glass substrates as functionalcoatings and the effects of different molecular structures, molecular weights and organic–inorganic ratioshave been thoroughly investigated in terms of surface properties (i.e. water and oil wettability and surfacesegregation of PFPE segments).