Antireflective and anti-dust modified silica based thin film on solar cell cover glass

•Silica based thin film modified with HMDS and PDMS were deposited on glass substrates.•The thin film exhibits hydrophobicity (CA 96◦) and self-cleaning effect.•The thin film exhibits anti-dust properties. In this research, a thin film of silica modified with HMDS and PDMS was deposited on the glass substrates by a spraying method. The thin film characterization was performed using X-ray diffraction, UV–VIS–NIR spectrophotometer, field emission scanning electron microscopy and infrared fourier transform spectroscopy methods. Self-cleaning, thermal shock, anti-dust and pencil hardness tests were performed on the samples. The results showed that the average transmittance of the glass coated sample in the wavelength range of 400–1000 nm was 96%, which increased as 5.4% in comparison to the uncoated glass. The modified silica thin film has a uniform distribution of the silica nanoparticles with different sizes between 10 and 70 nm on the surface, which has a water contact angle and a slip angle of 96° and 5°, respectively. In the self-cleaning test, it was observed that water droplets slipped on the surface and carried contaminants while for the uncoated sample, this property is not observed. In the simulated anti-dust test, it was observed that for coated glass, less dust particles are deposited on the surface than in the uncoated sample. Also, in thermal shock test, temperature cycles of −10 and 60 °C were performed at 10 times and it was observed that after eighth cycle, the coated sample lost its hydrophobic properties.