Rational design and elaborate construction of surface nano-structures toward highly antireflective superamphiphobic coatings

Three different nanostructures were assembled sequentially to build highly antireflective superamphiphobic coatings. A typical coating consisted of 5 layers of a 20 nm silica nanoparticle, 2 layers of an 80 nm hollow silica nanosphere and 3 layers of a mesoporous silica nanosheet deposited on a glass substrate. For this particular coating, the contact angle was 171° for water, 157° for diiodomethane and 156° for ethylene glycol. The maximum light transmittance obtained was as high as 96.1% at 530 nm, while only 91% was transmitted through a blank glass substrate.