The project will develop new ternary phases of metal oxide coatings on glass substrates. It will understand how variation in chemical composition effects physical properties such as electrical conductivity, hardness and adhesion to the substrate. The work will have as a primary focus the development of correlated metal systems- and see if correlated metals could be used as replacements for transparent conducting oxide coatings. Intial studies will be based on making vanadium dioxide coatings and calcium oxide coatings- followed by combining them into making a composite calcium vanadate coating. These coatings find applications in windows, in computer screens and in all mobile devices. They are also an essential part of photovoltaic cells. The essential physical chemistry question that will be answered are how to form a ternary mixture by new processing routes and how method of manufacture effects functional properties.
NSG will provide substrates, materials, help with film analysis and scale up. They will be prepared to fund the student when they are on site to do coatings work and allow the student to study reactions under oxygen (unavailable in UCL due to safety issues).
The project aligns with the government industrial strategy in new manufacturing processes and new materials; energy conservation.