Optical functionality of micro- and nanostructured silica surfaces prepared by a sol-gel phase separation method

We report a wet chemical method for spray-coating of large areas with microscopic transparent hemispherical silica structures using sol-gel phase separation in tetraethyl orthosilicate sols. Suitable adjustment of preparation conditions (amount of sprayed solution, its concentration, water content, amount of catalyst) led to the formation of sufficiently small, high aspect ratio and densely packed structures, which impose notable antireflective, light scattering and hydrophobic surface properties.