Transparency of Hybrid Films Based on (γ-Methacrylpropyl)- Trimethoxysilane and its Validation by Computing Energy-Band Structure

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Using (γ-methacrylpropyl)-trimethoxysilane (MPMS) modified with various amounts of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and titanium tetrabutoxide (TTB), two kinds of hybrid films, film-MPMS-silsesquioxane (SSO)-TEOS (f-MSTE) and film-MPMS-SSO-TTB (f-MSTT), were prepared. The average transparency (AT) of the modified films, about 90-94%, was measured in the ranges of the VIS light region (400-750 nm) and in the NIR region (750-2500 nm), indicating that these high-AT films can provide crops with growth energy and improvement of the photosynthetic process efficiency. Both TEOS and TTB adequate additions resulted in a hybrid structure (containing SiO2 and TiO2), and an addition can cause an increase in the AT radiation from sunlight. However, the AT of f-MSTE is higher than that of f-MSTT, which was validated using molecular dynamic simulation and calculation of the states density and the energy-band structure of MPMS-SSO, SiO2 and TiO2 building blocks.

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778-783

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June 2011

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© 2011 Trans Tech Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved

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