Method of making an antireflective silica coating, resulting product, and photovoltaic device comprising same

A method of making a photovoltaic device including a low-index silica based coating used in an antireflective coating, the method comprising:

• depositing a barrier undercoating on a glass substrate, wherein the barrier undercoating comprises a metal oxide selected from at least one of silica, alumina, titania, zirconia, and an oxynitride of silica;
• forming a silica precursor comprising a silica sol comprising a silane and/or a colloidal silica;
• depositing the silica precursor on the barrier undercoating to form a coating layer;
• curing and/or firing the coating layer in an oven at a temperature of from about 550 to 700° C. for a duration of from about 1 to 10 minutes;
• and
• using the glass substrate with the low-index silica based coating thereon as a front glass substrate of the photovoltaic device so that the low-index silica based coating is provided on a light incident side of the glass substrate.

A photovoltaic device comprising:

• a photovoltaic film, and at least a glass substrate on a light incident side of the photovoltaic film;
• an antireflection coating provided on the glass substrate;
• wherein the antireflection coating comprises at least a barrier undercoating layer provided directly on and contacting the glass substrate, the undercoating layer comprising a metal oxide selected from at least one of silica, alumina, titania, zirconia, and an oxynitride of silica;
• and a second layer on the barrier undercoating layer, wherein the second layer is produced using a method comprising the steps of:
• forming a silica precursor comprising a silica sol comprising a silane and/or a colloidal silica;
• depositing the silica precursor on a glass substrate to form a coating layer;
• curing and/or firing the coating layer in an oven at a temperature of from about 550 to 700° C. for a duration of from about 1 to 10 minutes.

A coated article comprising:

• a glass substrate;
• an antireflection coating provided on the glass substrate;
• wherein the antireflection coating comprises at least a barrier undercoating layer provided directly on and contacting the glass substrate, the undercoating layer comprising a metal oxide selected from at least one of silica, alumina, titania, zirconia, and an oxynitride of silica;
• and a second layer on the barrier undercoating layer, wherein the second layer is produced using a method comprising the steps of:
• forming a silica precursor comprising a silica sol comprising a silane and/or a colloidal silica;
• depositing the silica precursor on a glass substrate to form a coating layer;
• curing and/or firing the coating layer in an oven at a temperature of from about 550 to 700° C. for a duration of from about 1 to 10 minutes.