Broadband antireflective double-layer mesoporous silica coating with strong abrasion-resistance for solar cell glass

Abstract

To enhance the efficiency of solar cells, a broadband double-layer antireflective (AR) coating with excellent transmittance and abrasion-resistance, was successfully fabricated using two layer mesoporous silica coatings. Both layers were prepared via a solvent evaporation self-assembly method in which the top- and bottom-layer mesoporous silica coatings used Pluronic F127 and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as templates, respectively. The grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and the transmission electron microscope (TEM) results indicated that the mesopores in the double-layer AR coating belonged to a Fmmm orthorhombic symmetry structure of the SBA-16 in the top layer and a P₆/mmc 3D-hexagonal structure of the MCM-41 in the bottom layer. The solar-weighted average transmittance (T_PV) of the broadband AR coating is approximately 99.10% on quartz, 98.62% on borosilicate glass, and 98.55% on K9 glass in the solar spectrum range of 300–2400 nm. By introducing broadband AR coating, the overall power conversion efficiency (η) of the solar cell showed an increase of 1.23% for quartz, 1.31% for borosilicate glass, and 1.37% for K9 glass. Meanwhile, the double-layer AR coating had excellent mechanical stability; the T_PV value of coating after abrasion by CS-10F wearaser only decreased 0.16% on quartz, 0.29% on borosilicate glass and K9 glass. The pencil hardness of the double-layer AR coating was found to be 6H.