A novel route to prepare weather resistant, durable antireflective films for solar glass

• A novel antireflective film with good durability was prepared using spraying method.
• Base catalyzed sol was modified by polysiloxane and TiO2 sol by sol–gel process.
• Degradation of transmittance of AR film after damp-heat test was only 0.23%.
• Single layer antireflective films with transmittance of 95.02% at 565 nm were made.

Silica antireflective coatings by the base catalyzed sol–gel process show poor mechanical property. In this study, the base-catalyzed sol was modified by acid-catalyzed polysiloxane and nano-TiO2 sol. The single layer antireflective films were prepared using spray coating technology, the effects of transmission speed on the optical performance of the films were studied. The results show that the films derived from the modified sol have an excellent weather resistance. Its degradation of transmittance after damp-heat test is only 0.23%. The maximum transmittance of the antireflective solar glass with single layer coating is about 95.02% at 565 nm wavelength, which is about 3.36% higher than the substrate glass. The adhesion of the film is 5B and the pencil hardness is equal or higher than 3H. High transmittance, good mechanical properties and excellent durability make the films be suited to solar glass.