Hydrophobic–oleophobic antireflective film with excellent optical property prepared by a imple sol–gel route

Abstract A single layer SiO 2 hydrophobic–oleophobic antireflective (AR) film with excellent optical property was prepared by simply mixing the base-catalyzed tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) sol with acid-catalyzed methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) sol. When the weight ratio of acid-catalyzed MTES sol to total hybrid sol reaches to 70%, a hydrophobic–oleophobic AR film with a high transmittance of 98.89% at 550 nm can be obtained. The water contact angle and the oil contact angle of the film are 120.6° and 78.4°, respectively. No obvious reduction in the maximum transmittance of prepared single layer SiO 2 hydrophobic–oleophobic antireflective film at about 550 nm can be observed after abrasion or exposure to the outdoor condition for four months, demonstrating its great application potential in the outdoor devices.