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.

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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