Morphology-dependent optical and wetting behavior of GLAD PTFE thin films

E-beam evaporation equipped with glancing angle deposition arrangement (GLAD) was used to fabricate nanostructured polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) films in a single-step coating process. Three sets of PTFE coatings were prepared using various oblique angles, e-beam currents, and deposition times to explore the effects of deposition parameters on the properties of PTFE nanostructured coatings. Water contact angle (WCA) of the coatings was found to be enhanced with the increase in all the above process parameters. Optical transmittance of the coatings was also found to be improved with the above parameters except for in the case of an increase in thickness of the films (in very high thickness region), where the transmittance was degraded due to light scattering from the sample surface. After all the optimizations, the ~ 130-nm-thick GLAD PTFE sample prepared with highest e-beam current was found to be more suitable for antireflection and self-cleaning applications. The single-sided coating demonstrates a very high average transmittance of ~ 95.6% (with a wideband transmittance spectrum among the others) in the visible and NIR wavelength range with excellent self-cleaning nature (WCA ~ 156°, sliding angle ~ 10°). The trend of measured WCA with respect to surface roughness follows the Cassie–Baxter model. Overall, the study demonstrates the possibility of fabricating highly transparent self-cleaning coatings using the GLAD technique, which is potentially useful for fabricating protecting cover glasses in solar panels.