Transparent, conducting, indium tin oxide (ITO) films have been deposited, by pulsed dc magnetron sputtering, on glass and electroactive polymer (poly (vinylidene fluoride)-PVDF) substrates. Samples have been prepared at room temperature by varying the oxygen partial pressure. Electrical resistivity around 8.4x10-4 Ω. cm has been obtained for films deposited on glass, while a resistivity of 1.7x10-3 Ω. cm has been attained in similar coatings on PVDF. Fragmentation tests were performed on PVDF substrates with thicknesses of 28 µm and 110 µm coated with 40 nm ITO layer. The coating´s fragmentation process was analyzed and the crack onset strain and cohesive strength of ITO layers were evaluated.

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An experimental study of the ferroelastic phase transition in urea/n-heptadecane CO(NH2)2/C17H40 composite around the structural phase transition undergone by this crystal at 159 K is presented. The temperature dependence of the macroscopic spontaneous strain and the optical birefringence around this temperature has been determined. A phenomenological model limited to the hexagonal-orthorhombic change of the urea sublattice leads to a linear relation between these quantities and the phase transition entropy. The experimental data agree with this description exception made of the near vicinity of the phase transition, where the influence of the alkane chain ordering processes cannot be excluded.

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In this study, transparent conducting nanocrystalline ZnO:Ga (GZO) films were deposited by dc magnetron sputtering at room temperature on polymers (and glass for comparison). Electrical resistivities of 8.8 × 10 -4 and 2.2 × 10 -3 Ω cm were obtained for films deposited on glass and polymers, respectively. The crack onset strain (COS) and the cohesive strength of the coatings were investigated by means of tensile testing. The COS is similar for different GZO coatings and occurs for nominal strains approx. 1%. The cohesive strength of coatings, which was evaluated from the initial part of the crack density evolution, was found to be between 1.3 and 1.4 GPa. For these calculations, a Young's modulus of 112 GPa was used, evaluated by nanoindentation.