
Soon Plastic can be made Invisible, Anti-Reflective Coating is the Element of this Innovation
Antireflective (AR) coatings have a wide array of applications like glare reduction on eyeglasses, smart-phone display, and computer monitors. Researchers at Penn State have newly developed an anti-reflective coating that improvises existing manufacturing coating to such an extent that it can turn transparent plastics like Plexiglas practically invisible. Chris Geibink, an associate professor at Penn State, said that the discovery was made while trying to create high-efficiency solar panels. The process involved concentrating light using plastic lenses on small and highly efficient solar cells. Reducing reflection loss was essential.
The research group wanted an AR coating that would work well at multiple angles and over the entire solar spectrum as the sun crossed the sky. The team also wanted a coating that can withstand various weather conditions for over a long period. The research team would have made use of an off-the-shelf solution, but there was not any solution that met their requirements, and this led to innovation.
Check This Out: The Manufacturing Outlook
It is easier to make a solution that would eliminate reflection at a particular wavelength, angles or direction but the coating never fulfilled the required criteria. Eyeglass coating cannot be used because it is pointed towards the narrow visible portion of the spectrum. A solar spectrum is five-time broader as visible spectrum, so eyeglass coating would not perform well for a concentrating solar cell system. Reflections happen when light travels from one medium to another. The difference in refractive index will determine how fast the light can travel from one medium to another. For air, the refractive index is 1 and plastic has a refractive index of 1.5 so when the reflection would be significantly higher.
Natural coating materials like Teflon or magnesium fluoride have a refractive index of 1.3 this can be slowly varied to 1.5 by blending various materials. The team discovered a new process, they made use of sacrificial molecule to form nanoscale pores in Teflon, therefore, conceiving a graded index Teflon-air film that deceives light into seeing a transition from 1 to 1.5, eliminating all reflections.
See More:
Top Plastic Tech Companies
Featured Vendors
Advanced Material Solutions (AMS): 'Next Level' Flaw Detection with SmartTest™ Advanced Resonance Inspection
Technology Coast Partners: Helping Latin American Manufacturers in their Digital Transformation Journey
Panasonic Factory Solutions Company of America: Computer-integrated Software to Streamline Manufacturing Processes
NDS Global: Delivers Integrated Enterprise and Digital Solutions for Next Generation Manufacturing C
Reveal: Increasing Investor Confidence and Customer Market Share with People, Processes, and Technol
Panasonic Factory Solutions Company of America Seamlessly Integrating Manufacturing Systems with Pan
Epalign: Committed To Building The Highest Levels Of Performance In Manufacturing Operations Todd An
EDITOR'S PICK
Essential Technology Elements Necessary To Enable...
By Leni Kaufman, VP & CIO, Newport News Shipbuilding
Comparative Data Among Physician Peers
By George Evans, CIO, Singing River Health System
Monitoring Technologies Without Human Intervention
By John Kamin, EVP and CIO, Old National Bancorp
Unlocking the Value of Connected Cars
By Elliot Garbus, VP-IoT Solutions Group & GM-Automotive...
Digital Innovation Giving Rise to New Capabilities
By Gregory Morrison, SVP & CIO, Cox Enterprises
Staying Connected to Organizational Priorities is Vital...
By Alberto Ruocco, CIO, American Electric Power
Comprehensible Distribution of Training and Information...
By Sam Lamonica, CIO & VP Information Systems, Rosendin...
The Current Focus is On Comprehensive Solutions
By Sergey Cherkasov, CIO, PhosAgro
Big Data Analytics and Its Impact on the Supply Chain
By Pascal Becotte, MD-Global Supply Chain Practice for the...
Technology's Impact on Field Services
By Stephen Caulfield, Executive Director, Global Field...
Carmax, the Automobile Business with IT at the Core
By Shamim Mohammad, SVP & CIO, CarMax
The CIO's role in rethinking the scope of EPM for...
By Ronald Seymore, Managing Director, Enterprise Performance...
Driving Insurance Agent Productivity with Mobile and Big...
By Brad Bodell, SVP and CIO, CNO Financial Group, Inc.
Transformative Impact On The IT Landscape
By Jim Whitehurst, CEO, Red Hat
Get Ready for an IT Renaissance: Brought to You by Big...
By Clark Golestani, EVP and CIO, Merck
Four Initiatives Driving ECM Innovation
By Scott Craig, Vice President of Product Marketing, Lexmark...
Technology to Leverage and Enable
By Dave Kipe, SVP, Global Operations, Scholastic Inc.
By Meerah Rajavel, CIO, Forcepoint
AI is the New UI-AI + UX + DesignOps
By Amit Bahree, Executive, Global Technology and Innovation,...
Evolving Role of the CIO - Enabling Business Execution...
By Greg Tacchetti, CIO, State Auto Insurance
Read Also
