Highly flexible, transparent and self-cleanable superhydrophobic films prepared by a facile and scalable nanopyramid formation technique

Abstract

A facile and scalable technique to fabricate optically transparent, mechanically flexible and self-cleanable superhydrophobic films for practical solar cell applications is proposed. The superhydrophobic films were fabricated simply by transferring a transparent porous alumina layer, which was prepared using an anodic aluminium oxidation (AAO) technique, onto a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film with a UV-curable polymer adhesive layer, followed by the subsequent formation of alumina nano pyramids (NPs) through the time-controlled chemical etching of the transferred porous alumina membrane (PAM). It was found experimentally that the proposed functional films can ensure the superhydrophobicity in the Cassie–Baxter wetting mode with superior water-repellent properties through a series of experimental observations including static contact angle (SCA), contact angle hysteresis (CAH), sliding behaviour on the tilted film, and dynamic behaviour of the liquid droplet impacting on the film. In addition to the superior surface wetting properties, an optical transmittance of ∼79% at a light wavelength of 550 nm was achieved. Furthermore, there was no significant degradation in both the surface wetting properties and morphology even after 1500-cycles of repetitive bending tests, which indicates that the proposed superhydrophobic film is mechanically robust. Finally, the practicability of the proposed self-cleanable film was proven quantitatively by observing the changes in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a photovoltaic device covering the film before and after the cleaning process.