Abstract
This work presents a superhydrophobic antireflective (AR) coating on glass. The coating consists of a grass-like alumina layer capped with plasma-deposited fluoropolymer. The grass-like alumina is formed by hot water treatment of atomic layer-deposited alumina on glass, and the fluoropolymer is plasma-deposited from CHF3. Excellent broadband AR performance is observed in the visible spectrum with an average transmission of 94.9% for single-sided coated glass, which is close to the maximum 95.3% possible for this glass. Extremely desirable contact angles are obtained with 5–7 min-long fluoropolymer treatments on grass-like alumina with 173° advancing and 160° receding contact angles. This type of multifunctional coating can be beneficial in a multitude of applications like self-cleaning AR coating for solar panels, windows in high-rise buildings, sensors, and aerospace applications as well as just utilizing the excellent water repellent behavior in applications where only superhydrophobicity is required.
Highlights
Antireflective coatings (ARCs) are an important and very common part of the surrounding technology, but multifunctional coatings such as self-cleaning or antisoiling ARCs are not widely adopted
The most common and successful way to achieve a superhydrophobic surface is to use a combination of rough or even hierarchical micro- or nanostructures and low-surfaceenergy material as exemplified by the rich literature in this topic.[11−20] Some superhydrophobic surfaces have been produced without utilizing low-surface-energy materials or coatings.[21−23]
This work has demonstrated a new superhydrophobic antireflective coating, which consists of grass-like alumina and plasma-deposited fluoropolymer
Summary
Antireflective coatings (ARCs) are an important and very common part of the surrounding technology, but multifunctional coatings such as self-cleaning or antisoiling ARCs are not widely adopted. The most common and successful way to achieve a superhydrophobic surface is to use a combination of rough or even hierarchical micro- or nanostructures and low-surfaceenergy material as exemplified by the rich literature in this topic.[11−20] Some superhydrophobic surfaces have been produced without utilizing low-surface-energy materials or coatings.[21−23]. This work presents a new multifunctional coating with high broadband transmittance and superhydrophobicity. It consists of grass-like alumina[24] (GLA) and fluoropolymer (FP). GLA is a novel nanoporous coating reported recently and exhibits broadband and omnidirecional antireflective properties[24] that are due to its gradient refractive index profile, which are known to provide broadband and omnidirectional antireflection.[25−28] The fluoropolymer is applied on top of GLA and serves as a low-surface-energy layer. The developed coating is superhydrophobic and effectively reduces reflection on glass and other materials with similar (n ≈ 1.5) refractive index
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