Antireflective, photocatalytic, and superhydrophilic coating prepared by facile sparking process for photovoltaic panels

Reflected light represents uncaptured energy; therefore, decreasing the proportion of reflected light represents a promising approach for increasing the efficiency of PV panels. Textures on the front surfaces of the panels are often used to reduce the reflectance; however, it will be significant if the surfaces achieve lower reflective light. To quantify the reflectance of the cover, it was removed from the commercial panels and then cut to a size of 1 × 2 cm², and reflectance measurements were performed. Figure 4 shows the spectral reflectance of the uncoated and coated PV cover glass substrates. Experiments were repeated 3 times with similar results. The results show that the highest reflectance (8–9.5% in visible region) was obtained when the scan was repeated for two cycles. It decreases when the number of scan cycles are increased and the lowest reflectance (7–8.5% in…