Description

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Dip Coating is among the oldest and well known process for coating and thin film preparations, and have been used industrially for decades. It is advantageous for ensuring little or no material wastage. In this process, the substrate is dipped into a solution of the material of interest and later withdrawn at a fixed speed.

 

The process can be divided into several distinct parts

1. Immersion

2. Dwell time: this can be from a few seconds to several minutes in the case of chemical bath deposition §)

3. Withdrawal/deposition: the faster the substrate is withdrawn, the thicker the film)

4. Evaporation/drainage: Excess liquid drains from the surface of the substrate while the solvent in the deposit evaporates, leaving behind a solid film.

Depending on the solvent and solution viscosity, stages 3 and 4 can and usually do overlap.

 

However one should not be deceived by the simplicity of the process, reproducibility and quality control are still major issues. The MultiCoater helps you perform dip coating with precise control of the relevant process parameters. With the robotic arm, dipping into different solutions to deposit film or functionalise a surface is simple, and when necessary with drying or rinsing (e.g by dipping into a rinsing solution) or other steps inbetween. All automated and requiring no human intervention. The ultrasonic spray coater can also be incooperated as one of the film fabrications steps by making the module stationary and moving the substrate from a dip coating, rinsing or any other station to it.

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Chemical bath deposition can be regarded as a form of dip coating in which only the dwell time matters, besides ambient conditions.