An environmentally friendly approach to produce single-layer anti-reflective coatings on large surfaces using wet chemical method

Sustainable production of anti-reflective coatings demands environmentally friendly approaches. This paper introduces a novel method of preparing thin films from an aqueous medium using a sol-gel technique. Single-layer anti-reflective coatings, from water-based silica sols, were prepared and characterized. The thicknesses of thin films were found to be between 75 and 135 nm with refractive indexes between 1.23 and 1.41 and porosities between 7 and 53%. The maximum transmissions of manufactured coatings reached from 99.85% to 99.03% in the visible region. The ageing of silica particles in the aqueous medium was studied using TEM. The transparent water-based sol consisted of individual silicon-dioxide nanoparticles with narrow size distribution (15–20 nm). The TEM images showed, that the silica nanoparticles become uniform and distinguishable within two weeks and no aggregation occurs within 46 days. It was found, that the aqueous silica sol is stable and clear for more than 6 months. The aqueous silica films deposited onto large glass surfaces were found to be homogeneous, with excellent adhesion (Cross Hatch Test is 0; ISO 2409 test standard) and hardness equal to 2H. We present a schematic illustration of the adsorption mechanism of non-ionic silicone surfactant and Pluronic surfactant on the silica surface.