Preparation of silica antireflective films for solar energy application

Abstract Antireflective films were fabricated by an acid-catalyzed sol-gel process using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as template. Size of SiO 2 particles in the sol was measured to be in the range of 10–30 nm. The films were coated on glass substrates by dip-coating method then baked at 180 °C and tempered at 720 °C for different times. The template CTAB can be removed completely by tempering, which shortens the baking time and reinforces the bonding strength between the film and the substrate. The adhesion of the tempered films all reaches 5 B and their hardness is 3 H or above. The maximum light transmittance of 97.7% was obtained which increased about 6.0% compared with its glass substrate.