High performance broad band antireflective coatings using a facile synthesis of ink-bottle mesoporous MgF2 nanoparticles for solar applications

Ultra-low refractive index thin films suitable for practical antireflective (AR) applications must be highly transparent, economical, and durable against temperature and weather conditions. In this work, we present a high performance broad band antireflective coating using a facile synthesis of Ink-Bottle mesoporous MgF2 nanoparticles. The nanoparticles having, high crystalline and dispersible properties were prepared by a deformation-reformation route from coarse commercial MgF2 hydrate powder by Lyothermal synthesis. These nanoparticles, after dispersion in a suitable solvent were used to develop a single layer AR coating by dip-coating technique. We precisely developed coatings tunable to achieve minimum reflection losses between 400 and 1500 nm. The AR coating exhibited nearly 100% transmittance within visible range (615-660 nm) and an average transmittance of 99% and 97% in the visible (400-800 nm) and active solar range (300-1500 nm) respectively. Further, use of the AR coating on PV glass led to a net improvement of 6% in efficiency for c-Si solar cells. This work opens a promising approach to improve the device performance of solar cells as well as solar collectors by developing broad band antireflective surfaces using mesoporous nanoparticles. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.