Antireflective Coating on Float Glass for Solar Collectors

Dr. Monika Kursawe, Dr. Thomas A. Hofmann

This paper describes the development of a novel antireflective coating on glass panels for solar applications.

The coating solution is prepared by sol-gel technique and applied on the glass by dip-coating. This generates a porous SiO2-layer exhibiting a refractive index between 1.2 and 1.3. The resulting, wide band antireflective effect leads to an increase of solar transmission from 90% for an ordinary float glass up to 96% for the antireflex-coated float glass. Reasonable abrasion resistance of the coating makes this system highly suitable for cover sheets for solar collectors or solar cells.

A pilot plant has been set up for coating glass planes of 2.5 m length and 1.5 m height.

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