ITO coated quartz fibers for heat radiative applications

Radiation heat transfer through fibrous materials is very strong at high temperatures (up to 1000 °C). Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were sol-gel deposited onto the surfaces of fibers to reduce the radiation heat transfer as radiation reflective coatings. SEM, XRD and FT-IR techniques were used to characterize the microstructure and performance of films. Results show that ITO thin film is uniformly deposited on fibers with a thickness of about 200 nm and can be used to apply a radiative reflective coating. Moreover, the efficiency of radiation reflective properties of films is improved as the annealing temperature increases. Results prove that ITO film is an excellent candidate to reduce the radiation heat transfer as radiation reflective coatings on fibrous materials.