Superhydrophilic antifogging broadband antireflective coatings with worm-like nanostructures fabricated by one dip-coating method and calcination

In this work, superhydrophilic antifogging antireflective coatings were prepared by the dip-coating of polyacrylate/polypropylsilsesquioxane core-shell nanocomposite particles' sols followed by calcination at 500 °C for 4 h. The results showed that the transmittance of all the coatings in the band of 350–1000 nm was significantly higher than that of pure glass substrate, showing excellent broadband and antireflection performance. In particular, the maximum transmittance of the coatings with 8.0 g of propyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS-8) was 99.1% at the wavelength of 546 nm, and the average transmittance of the coatings reached 98.0% in the wavelength range of 400–700 nm and was enhanced by 9.3% compared to that of the bare glass substrate. Furthermore, the contact angle of the coatings decreased with the increase in the surface bumps structures of the coatings, and the minimum contact angle of the surface of the coatings with 10.0 g of propyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS-10) reached nearly zero within 0.5 s when the bumps evolved into a worm-like nanostructure, showing excellent superhydrophilic and antifogging properties. It was concluded that both roughness and special worm-like nanostructures give rise to the superhydrophilicity of the coatings.