Mechanical and Tribological Properties of the Oxide Thin Films Obtained by Sol–gel Method

Abstract

This chapter will discuss the mechanical and tribological stability at the micro- and nanoscales of oxide films deposited by the sol--gel technique. The importance of tribological studies on sol--gel oxide films and of some works available in the literature will be shown. Particularly, films with applications in photovoltaic and photocatalyst devices compound of Cd2SnO4 and CdO+CdTiO3 films, respectively, and films obtained from their precursor solutions were evaluated by a quantitative novel method for simultaneous in situ measurement of the wear and friction evolution. The results obtained show the microtribological performance of the sol--gel oxides strongly depends on their crystalline phase, microstructure, and synthesis conditions.