Tailoring superhydrophobic ZnO nanorods on Si pyramids with enhanced visible range antireflection property

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods on textured Si surfaces create superhydrophobic and visible-range antireflective properties, beneficial for photovoltaic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a method to simultaneously achieve superhydrophobicity and antireflection in hierarchical ZnO/Si structures, enhancing photovoltaic surface performance.

Findings

Contact angle increased from 102° to 157°

Achieved 5% reduction in visible range reflectance

Confirmed ZnO phase via XRD and Raman analysis

Abstract

Simultaneous superhydrophobic and visible range antireflective properties are demonstrated in hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods on chemically textured Si surfaces. A drastic transformation of Si micro pyramids from hydrophobic to superhydrophobic is observed by securing the formation of polycrystalline ZnO nanorods at surfaces, showing an increment of apparent contact angle from 102 degree to 157 degree and further explained in the light of a decrease in solid fractional surface area, according to the Cassie Baxter model. Moreover, wurtzite phase of ZnO NRs is confirmed by the X ray diffraction and Raman analysis. Such hierarchical structures further exhibit a large visible range antireflection, 5 percentage, and correlated it to the variation in aspect ratio of Si pyramids in conjunction with the formation of graded refractive index. The combined superhydrophobic and large antireflection phenomenon in the present dual scale structures is believed to be useful for Si based photovoltaic applications.