Substrate (materials science)

Substrate is a term used in materials science to describe the base material on which processing is conducted to produce new film or layers of material such as deposited coatings.

Additional recommended knowledge

What is the Correct Way to Check Repeatability in Balances?

Daily Sensitivity Test

Recognize and detect the effects of electrostatic charges on your balance

A typical substrate might be a metal, onto which a coating might be deposited by any of the following processes:

• Coating and printing processes
• Chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition
• Conversion coating

• Anodizing
• Chromate conversion coating
• Plasma electrolytic oxidation
• Phosphate (coating)

• Paint

• Enamel (paint)
• Powder coating
• Industrial coating
• Silicate mineral paint
• Fusion bonded epoxy coating (FBE coating)

• pickled and oiled, a type of plate steel coating.
• Plasma coatings
• Plating

• Electroless plating
• Electrochemical plating

• Polymer coatings, such as Teflon
• Sputtered or vacuum deposited materials
• Enamel (vitreous)

Substrate may be also an engineered surface where an unintended or natural process occurs, like in:

• Fouling
• Corrosion
• Biofouling
• Heterogeneous catalysis
• Adsorption

See also

• List of coating techniques
• Thin-film deposition