High-Quality Hollow Closed-Pore Silica Antireflection Coatings Based on Styrene–Acrylate Emulsion @ Organic–Inorganic Silica Precursor

Abstract

Making use of a facile and low-cost way for the preparation of a hierarchically organized novel hollow closed-pore silica antireflective coating (CHAR) with tailored optical properties and a mechanical reliability is of great interest in the field of solar photovoltaic technology. The process mainly contains two aspects: (1) a styrene-acrylate emulsion @ organic-inorganic silica precursor (SA@OISP) core/shell hierarchical nanostructure, consisting of a sacrificial styrene-acrylate (SA) primary template, was fabricated using a sol-gel method; (2) the self-assembly of the nanostructures leads to SA@OISP nanospheres forming the high-quality hollow closed-pore silica antireflection coating (CHAR) by a dip-coating process and a subsequent calcination treatment. The resulting SA@OISP nanospheres have a mean diameter of 65.2 nm and contained a SA soft core with a mean diameter of approximately 54.8 nm and an organic-inorganic silica precursor (OISP) shell with a thickness of approximately 6-10 nm. Furthermore, the prepared CHAR film exhibited a high transmittance and good ruggedness. An average transmittance (TAV) of 97.64% was obtained, and the value is close to the ideal single-layered antireflection coating (98.09%) over a broad range of wavelengths (from 380 to 1100 nm). The CHAR film showed a stable TAV, with attenuation values of less than 0.8% and 0.43% after the abrasion test and the damp heat test, respectively. The conversion efficiency of the CHAR coating cover solar modules tends to be increased by 3.75%. The promising results obtained in this study suggest that the CHAR film was considered as an essential component of the solar module and were expected to provide additional solar energy harvest under extreme outdoor climates.

Highly Stable and Efficient Mesoporous and Hollow Silica Antireflection Coatings for Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Silica (SiO 2 ) is one of the most popular materials for ARC owing to its promising advantages in terms of high transparency with a relatively low refractive index of 1.46, environmental friendliness, high chemical inertness, strong adhesion on glass substrates, low cost, solution processability, and so on . Some researchers have tried to reduce the refractive index of silica by introducing a certain porosity within the film. ,,,− However, these methods either have a limited range of refractive index adjustment, or their long-term durability under outdoor operational conditions of a solar cell was not properly evaluated. Many characterization methods have been performed to investigate the stability, for example, the hardness measurements, mechanical abrasion and scrub cycles, , scotch tape test, bending test, high temperature annealing, , damp heat test (85 °C/85% relative humidity), , air exposure, light irradiation, dust settling and removal test, and so on to present the mechanical stability, thermal stability, dust or water resistance of the ARCs.…”

“…Some researchers have tried to reduce the refractive index of silica by introducing a certain porosity within the film. ,,,− However, these methods either have a limited range of refractive index adjustment, or their long-term durability under outdoor operational conditions of a solar cell was not properly evaluated. Many characterization methods have been performed to investigate the stability, for example, the hardness measurements, mechanical abrasion and scrub cycles, , scotch tape test, bending test, high temperature annealing, , damp heat test (85 °C/85% relative humidity), , air exposure, light irradiation, dust settling and removal test, and so on to present the mechanical stability, thermal stability, dust or water resistance of the ARCs. However, all these methods were indirect ways to characterize the stability, and only one or a few aspects of the impact factors were considered.…”

Facile, Large-Scale, and Expeditious Synthesis of Hollow Co and Co@Fe Nanostructures: Application for Electromagnetic Wave Absorption

“…However, the template materials always differ from each other, and thus synthesis processes would be much more complex. Besides, high temperature and extremely long time are often required while removing the templates. − Most importantly, nonmetallic materials are commonly used as templates, such as SiO 2 , carbon, and polystyrene. − The benefit of using these templates is that they would not damage the metal coating or shell. Even so, there is not any feasible method to coat metal on those nonmetallic cores, owing to the intrinsic chemical or physical property difference.…”

Preparation and Properties of Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Antireflection Films Made by a Low-Temperature Process Using Hollow Silica Nanoparticles

“…Hollow silica nanoparticles are one of the most promising materials for antireflection coatings − because they are chemically stable, corrosion and heat resistant, and exhibit significant hardness. In addition, films composed of these nanoparticles have shown lower refractive index values than silica itself ( n = 1.46), meaning that they have antireflection properties.…”