Sol-gel coating of colloidal particles deposited glass surface pertinent to self-cleaning applications

A sol-gel coating using colloidal silica on a glass surface is carried out towards improving the self-cleaning properties. The optical transmittance and hydrophobic characteristics of the resulting coating are analyzed using analytical tools. Since the sol-gel coating reduces the optical transmittance of the glass samples, due to scattering and diffusion of the incident optical radiation at the coating surface, silicon oil (Sigma-Aldrich, 10 cSt) impregnation method is introduced to improve the optical transmittance. Silicon oil has good heat transfer characteristics, stable properties over range of temperatures, and optically transparent characteristics with refractive index of 1.4034. The resulting coated surface is tested in outdoor environments to examine the dust effect on the optical transmittance of the sol-gel coated and oil impregnated glass samples. It is found that deposition of 75 nm size silica particles on the glass surface modifies the texture height of the sol-gel coating, which in turn, improves the surface hydrophobicity. Sol-gel coating results in a web-type fully connected porous structures; in which case, agglomeration of the synthesized particles is responsible for the fully connected porous texture at the coating surface. The optical transmittance remains low for the sol-gel coated glass samples because of scattering and diffusion of the incident optical radiation at the coating surface. Silicon oil impregnation improves the optical transmittance of the sol-gel coated samples. The dust particles immerse into the oil film and reduce the optical transmittance of the oil impregnated samples in outdoor environments.