Theoretical and Experimental Characterization of Efficient Anti-Dust Coatings under Desert Conditions

Abstract

Transparent titania coatings have self-cleaning and anti-reflection properties (AR) that are of great importance in optical and solar applications. In this work, an efficient and easy to scale up adsorptive self-assembly process is used to coat glass substrates with two TiO₂nanocolloids (TC-1 and TC-2) prepared via polyol method. TEM images of the nanoparticles show an average particle size of 2.6 and 167.7 nm of TC-1 and TC-2, respectively. The theoretical values for the coating thickness as well as for the antireflective index were compared with the experimental values obtained via elipsometer measurements. The self-cleaning properties were investigated by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, contact angle, surface tension and UV-vis spectroscopy. The optical images show 56% reduction of dust deposition rate with lower adhesion force over the best performing coated surfaces TC-1 compared with bare glass substrates and TC-2 after 7 days of soiling.<div><br></div>