Scalability, transparency, and robustness are the bottlenecks for superhydrophobic (SH) coatings, which restrict its use in commercial solar panel applications. Herein, a systematic approach is demonstrated to upscale the SH coating consisting of hierarchical pseudoboehmite nanoflakelets on solar cover glass of photovoltaic (PV) panels using a custom-made large area wire-bar coater. The pseudoboehmite nanoflakelets manifested an ultrahigh water contact angle (CA) of >175° and near-zero roll-off angle (RA) of <1°. The pseudoboehmite hierarchical nanoflakelets aided in augmenting the antireflective property with a superior optical transmittance of >93% in contrast to the uncoated glass (89%) with improved solar performance because of its subwavelength nanostructures. The nanoflakelets exhibited enhanced conversion efficiency compared to uncoated glass, resulting in 13.2% enhancement because of the superior light trapping capability over the entire visible region. Significantly, the SH surface sustains the efficiency (99.7%) after exposure to the dust particles because of the excellent self-cleaning characteristics of the nanoengineered surface. The present work also envisions a comprehensive study of the performance of the SH coating toward mechanical and chemical stability. The proposed work paves a pathway in harvesting sustainable solar energy for PV systems because of its potential advantages of self-cleaning properties, scalability and low cost.

中文翻译：

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基于假勃姆石纳米片的超疏水涂层，用于可持续的光伏能源生产

可伸缩性，透明度和坚固性是超疏水（SH）涂料的瓶颈，这限制了其在商业太阳能电池板应用中的使用。在本文中，展示了一种系统化的方法，可使用定制的大面积线棒式涂布机，在光伏（PV）面板的太阳能覆盖玻璃上高档化由分层的假勃姆石纳米薄片组成的SH涂层。假勃姆石纳米片表现出> 175°的超高水接触角（CA）和<1°的近零滑落角（RA）。与未镀膜的玻璃（89％）相比，伪勃姆石分层纳米片有助于提高抗反射性能，其透光率> 93％，而亚光玻璃由于其亚波长纳米结构而具有改善的太阳能性能。与未镀膜玻璃相比，纳米片具有更高的转换效率，由于在整个可见光区域具有出色的光捕获能力，因此纳米片提高了13.2％的转换效率。值得注意的是，由于纳米工程表面具有出色的自清洁特性，因此SH表面在暴露于灰尘颗粒后仍能保持效率（99.7％）。本工作还预见了SH涂层对机械和化学稳定性的性能的综合研究。拟议的工作为光伏系统收集可持续的太阳能铺平了道路，因为它具有自清洁特性，可扩展性和低成本的潜在优势。由于纳米工程表面具有出色的自清洁特性，因此SH表面在暴露于灰尘颗粒后仍可保持效率（99.7％）。本工作还预见了SH涂层对机械和化学稳定性的性能的综合研究。拟议的工作为光伏系统收集可持续的太阳能铺平了道路，因为它具有自清洁特性，可扩展性和低成本的潜在优势。由于纳米工程表面具有出色的自清洁特性，因此SH表面在暴露于灰尘颗粒后仍可保持效率（99.7％）。本工作还预见了SH涂层对机械和化学稳定性的性能的综合研究。拟议的工作为光伏系统收集可持续的太阳能铺平了道路，因为它具有自清洁特性，可扩展性和低成本的潜在优势。