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Superhydrophobic antireflective coating with high transmittance

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to fabricate a superhydrophobic antireflective (AR) coating that can be deposited on the covering of a solar cell system. First, AR coatings were synthesized on glass substrates with an average transmittance over 96% by layer-by-layer deposition of polyelectrolyte. Superhydrophobic sol gel was prepared by hydrolyzing tetraethoxysilane and then reacting it with hexamethyldisilazane. The sol gel, aged at 20°C for 96 h, was used to spin-coat a superhydrophobic film with a water contact angle of 163° and a transmittance of ~91%. The superhydrophobic sol gel was spin-coated on the top of an AR coating to form a superhydrophobic AR coating on a glass substrate. The average transmittance, advancing contact angle, and contact angle hysteresis of the superhydrophobic AR coating, which was spin-coated from sol gel aged for 96 h or 168 h, were 94.5 ± 0.7%, 154.0° ± 1.5°, and 15.4° ± 0.3° or 96.4 ± 0.2%, 158.4° ± 4.4°, and 1.8° ± 0.3°, respectively. Strategies for obtaining a superhydrophobic AR coating are discussed herein.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the National Science Council of the Republic of China, Taiwan, for financially supporting this research under Contract No. NSC_100-2221-E-224-075-.

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  1. Institute of Materials Science, National Yunlin University of Science & Technology, 123, Sec 3, University Rd., Douliu, Yunlin, Taiwan, ROC

    Shing-Dar Wang & Yung-Yeh Shu

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  1. Shing-Dar Wang
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Correspondence to Shing-Dar Wang.

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Wang, SD., Shu, YY. Superhydrophobic antireflective coating with high transmittance. J Coat Technol Res 10, 527–535 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-012-9468-9

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