Visible-light-responsive photoactive coating, coated article, and method of making same

1. A method of forming a photoactive coating having a photoabsorption band including at least a part of the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, comprising the steps of:

depositing a precursor composition over at least a portion of a float glass ribbon in a molten metal bath by a CVD coating device, the precursor composition comprising:

a titania precursor material; and

at least-one other precursor material having a metal selected from chromium (Cr), vanadium (V), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), niobium (Nb), molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), tungsten (W), silver (Ag), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), rhenium (Re), and mixtures thereof.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the titania precursor material is selected from titanium tetrachloride and titanium alkoxides.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the titania precursor material is selected from titanium isopropoxide and titanium tetraethoxide.

4. The method of claim 1 , including heating the substrate to a temperature sufficient to decompose the titania precursor material and the other precursor material to form the photoactive coating.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive coating is photocatalytic upon exposure to electromagnetic energy in the range of 400 nm to 800 nm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive coating is photoactively hydrophilic upon exposure to electromagnetic energy in the range of 400 nm to 800 nm.

7. The method of claim 1 , including depositing sufficient precursor composition such that the photocatalytic coating has a thickness in the range of about 50 Å to about 2000 Å.

8. The method of claim 1 , including depositing an intermediate layer between the ribbon and the photocatalytic coating.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the intermediate layer is an antireflective layer.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the antireflective layer comprises at least one of aluminum oxide, tin oxide, indium oxide, silicon oxide, silicon oxycarbide, and silicon oxynitride.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the intermediate layer is a sodium ion diffusion barrier layer.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the barrier layer includes at least one of silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, silicon oxycarbide, aluminum oxide, fluorine doped aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride, and mixtures thereof.