Aerosol-based deposition of broadband antireflective silica coating withclosed mesoporous structure

Solar energy will be a crucial part of the sustainable, fossil free energy production of the future. Amajority of this will be produced by solar collectors and photovoltaics. Important for the efficientutilization of the incident solar energy for both technologies are a cover glass with antireflectivecoatings giving it a high solar transmittance. In the current paper we describe the development ofantireflective mesoporous silica coatings on low-iron float glass using the aerosol-based nFOGTMdeposition technique. The coatings exhibit a hexagonal and closed pore structure, a high smoothness,and consistent thicknesses of approximately 110 nm. This is in line with optimal thicknessesdetermined from simulations of the antireflective behavior. Low-iron float glass coated on both sidesshow a highly reproducible solar weighted transmittance of 95 % in the wavelength range 300-2500nm and an antireflective effect increasing with incident angle. The smoothness and closed poresassociated with high cleanability, as well as high transmittance makes it a competitive broadbandantireflective coating well adapted for solar glass applications.