Agustín-Sáenz, CeciliaMachado, MaiderTercjak, Agnieszka2020-04-15Agustín-Sáenz , C , Machado , M & Tercjak , A 2020 , ' Polyfluoroalkyl-silica porous coatings with high antireflection properties and low surface free energy for glass in solar energy application ' , Applied Surface Science , vol. 509 , 144864 , pp. 144864 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.1448640169-4332researchoutputwizard: 11556/861Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Elsevier B.V.Polyfluoroalkyl-silica porous coating stacks with durable antireflection (AR) properties have been obtained for photovoltaic (PV) application. An acid-catalyzed sol-gel process combined with evaporation induced self-assembly and the presence of a non-hydrolyzable polyfluoroalkyl group linked to the central atom of the silicon alkoxide was conducted. The aim was to obtain a low surface energy coating, devised to mitigate soiling adherence, without losing the AR properties of a baseline coating. In particular, the influence of polyfluoroalkyl chain length on the thickness, the water contact angle and optical transmission properties was first analyzed. The optimized polyfluoroalkyl-silica porous coating presented low surface energy < 20 mJ/m2, even with the desired low roughness values required for obtaining a negligible scattering of the incoming solar radiation. This coating was studied as an AR mono-layer and as an external coating in an AR bi-layer stack, with the presence of an inner dense-structured silica layer, that contributed to both the optical performance and durability, acting as an alkali diffusion preventing layer. The AR bi-layer stack deposited on two sides of glass provided a transmittance gain of 7.1%. Those optical properties were inalterable after accelerated aging tests, which sustains the reliability of the materials for solar energy applications.12025387enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessjournal article10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.144864Sol-gelFluoroalkylPhotovoltaicsSoilingSurface energyAntireflectiveSol-gelFluoroalkylPhotovoltaicsSoilingSurface energyAntireflectiveGeneral ChemistryCondensed Matter PhysicsGeneral Physics and AstronomySurfaces and InterfacesSurfaces, Coatings and FilmsSDG 7 - Affordable and Clean EnergyFunding InfoThis work was supported by the Basque Government through EMAITEK 2017 program as well as the ELKARTEK projects FRONTIERS-2 (contract number KK2016-00093 ) and FRONTIERS-3 (contract number KK2017-00096 ). The authors thank ICV-CSIC, Yolanda Castro and Alicia Durán for their support with ellipsometry and EEP measurements. The authors thank Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) for their collaboration with the aging tests. The authors thank Miguel Pérez-Aradros for the help with graphical abstract illustration.This work was supported by the Basque Government through EMAITEK 2017 program as well as the ELKARTEK projects FRONTIERS-2 (contract number KK2016-00093 ) and FRONTIERS-3 (contract number KK2017-00096 ). The authors thank ICV-CSIC, Yolanda Castro and Alicia Durán for their support with ellipsometry and EEP measurements. The authors thank Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) for their collaboration with the aging tests. The authors thank Miguel Pérez-Aradros for the help with graphical abstract illustration.http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076602756&partnerID=8YFLogxK