Superhydrophilic coatings with enhanced transmittance fabricated from solid and mesoporous silica nanoparticles

AbstractSuperhydrophilic coatings with high transmittance were fabricated from solid and mesoporous silica nanoparticles (NPs) via layer-by-layer assembly followed by calcination. These porous silica coatings were highly transparent and superhydrophilic. The maximum transmittance reached as high as 96.1%, while that of the glass substrate was 91%. The time for a droplet to spread flat (water contact angle lower than 5°) is <1 s. Scanning and transmission electron microscopies were used to observe the morphology and structure of both NPs and coating surfaces. Transmission spectra and their changes after calcination were characterized by UV–vis spectrophotometry. The surface wettability was studied using a contact angle/interface system.Keywords: superhydydrophilicantireflectivemesoporous silica nanoparticlelayer-by-layer assembly AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (Grant No. KGCX2-YW-370), the National High Technology Research and Development Program (‘863’ Program) of China (Grant No. 2011AA050525), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 20871118), and ‘Hundred Talents Program’ of CAS.