A superhydrophobic film of photovoltaic modules and self-cleaning performance

For photovoltaic (PV) modules, dust accumulation is one of the reasons for the reduction of output power, while conventional cleaning is expensive and inefficient for large scale PV power plants. Therefore, the research of superhydrophobic self-cleaning thin film on PV modules is proposed in this paper. The preparation of superhydrophobic film combines the low surface energy layer and anti-reflection layer which enhances the adhesion between the superhydrophobic film and the glass substrate by forming the stable covalent bonds. Its fundamental characteristics were tested and analyzed including transmittance, contact angle, micromorphology and energy spectrum. Finally, the effect of the superhydrophobic film on the self-cleaning performance and improvement of output power were investigated after coating the film on PV modules. The comparison results show that the prepared superhydrophobic thin film not only has anti-reflection and self-cleaning ability to improve the transmittance and output power of the PV modules, but also has excellent weatherability by forming stable covalent bonds through dehydration reactions.