Various materials (glass, metal, polymers) are used in the automotive industry. Premature aging of materials can occur due to the influence of weather conditions. Therefore, it is advisable to apply layers that have self-cleaning, anti-corrosion properties to the surfaces. The work deals with the study of the influence of TiO₂ layers on changes in the surface properties of selected solid materials. The layers were applied to the solid substrates by the dip-coating technique from the sols prepared by the sol-gel method. The applied layers were heat treated at a temperature of 450 °C for 1 h. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to evaluate the morphology and topography of the surfaces of the uncoated and coated substrates, and the roughness of the surfaces was evaluated, too. The thickness of the layers was determined using scanning electron microscopy. Measuring the profile of a sessile drop on the surface of the substrate with and without a layer was used to obtain values of the contact angle on the surfaces of the studied materials. The contact angles were used to calculate the surface free energy and its polar and dispersive components using the Fowkes method. Based on the higher surface free energy values of the studied surfaces, we can conclude that the TiO₂ layer affected the surface properties of the solid materials on which it was applied. The TiO₂ layer tends to smooth the surface of relatively rough untreated substrates, and it was confirmed by the reduction of the roughness values detected by means of AFM measurements.

The work was supported by the project KEGA 001TnUAD-4/2022