Generally, ceramic tiles for building construction are manufactured by dry forming process using granular powders prepared by spray drying process after mixing and grinding of mineral raw materials. In recent years, as the demand for large ceramic tiles with natural texture has increased, the development of granule powders with high packing ratio and excellent flowability has become more important. In this study, ceramic tile granule powders are coated with hydrophobically treated silica nanoparticles. The effects of hydrophobic silica coating on the flowability of granule powders and the strength of the green body are investigated in detail. Silica nanoparticles are hydrophobically treated with GPTMS(3-glycidoxypropyl trimethoxy silane), which is an epoxy-based silane coupling agent. As the coating concentration increases, the angle of repose and the compressibility decrease. The tap density and flowability index increase after silica coating treatment. These results indicate that hydrophobic treatment can improve the flowability of the granular powder, and prevent cracking of green body at high pressure molding.

Anti-reflection coating films have used to increase the transmittance of displays and enhance the efficiency of solar cells. Hydrophobic anti-reflection coating films were fabricated on a glass substrate by sol-gel method. To fabricate an anti-reflection film with a high transmittance, poly ethylene glycol (PEG) was added to tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) solution. The content of PEG was changed from 1 to 4 wt% in order to control the morphology, thickness, and refractive index of the SiO2 thin films. The reflectance and transmittance of both sides of the coated thin film fabricated with PEG 4 wt% solution were 0.3% and 99.4% at 500 nm wavelength. The refractive index and thickness of the thin film were n = 1.29 and d = 105 nm. Fluoro alkyl silane (FAS) was used for hydrophobic treatment on the surface of the anti-reflection thin film. The contact angle was increased from 13.2˚ to 113.7˚ after hydrophobic treatment.