Nanostructured coatings and related methods

1. A method of making a coated article, comprising:

a. depositing an undercoating over at least a portion of a substrate;

b. fluidizing a precursor for nanoparticles; and

forcing the fluidized precursor toward the substrate to coat the undercoating with nanoparticles, wherein the method produces a coated article having a photocatalytic activity of at least 33×10 −3 min −1 ·cm −1 wherein the undercoating is at least 54 nm thick and the nanoparticles comprise titania in an amount of at least 6 μg·cm −2 .

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising passing the fluidized precursor through a high energy zone.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the high energy zone is selected from the group consisting of a hot wall reactor, a chemical vapor particle deposition reactor, a combustion deposition reactor, a plasma chamber, a laser beam, and a microwave chamber.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the fluidizing step comprises atomizing the precursor into an aerosol.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the fluidizing step comprises fluidizing a precursor for the titania nanoparticles selected from the group consisting of titanium(IV)isopropoxide, titanium(IV)chloride, titanium(IV)butoxide, titanium(IV)ethoxide, titanium(IV)methoxide, titanium(IV)oxideacetylacetonate, titanium(IV)propoxide, and titanium(IV)(triethanolaminato)isopropoxide, or mixtures thereof.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the forcing step comprises imparting momentum to the fluidized precursor using a moving gas stream.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the deposited undercoating comprises a single layer.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the deposited undercoating is selected from the group consisting of tin oxide, silica, titania, alumina, zirconia, zinc oxide, cesium oxide, and alloys and mixtures thereof.

9. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the deposited undercoating comprises a mixture selected from the group consisting of titania and silica; silica and tin oxide; alumina and tin oxide; alumina and zirconia; alumina and zinc oxide; silica and zirconia; silica and zinc oxide; alumina and silica; titania and alumina; and alumina, silica and titania.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the deposited undercoating comprises multiple layers of oxide materials.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the deposited undercoating comprises a layer of silica over a layer of tin oxide.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nanoparticles have an aspect ratio ranging from 1:1 to 1:1,000.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nanoparticles are forced onto the undercoating such that they are separated by a distance ranging from 1 nm to 1000 nm.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nanoparticles have a longest dimension ranging from 30 nm to 50 nm.

15. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the silica is present in an amount of 85% and the alumina is present in the amount of 15%.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising forming at least one additional coating layer over the nanoparticle coating.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein said additional coating layer comprises titania.

18. A method of making a coated article, comprising:

a. depositing an undercoating over at least a portion of a glass substrate by chemical vapor deposition;

b. fluidizing a precursor for nanoparticles; and

c. forcing the fluidized precursor toward the substrate to coat the undercoating with nanoparticles thereby forming a layer of nanoparticles on the undercoating;

wherein the method is an online process, and

wherein said nanoparticles comprise titania in brookite phase.