Omnidirectional Antireflective\nCoatings Fabricated\nvia Freeze Casting of Chitin Nanofibers

Introducing nanopores into antireflective coatings can\nfurther\nenhance their antireflective capacity. Antireflective coatings based\non chitin nanofibers (ChNFs) and methyltrimethoxysilan were first\nfabricated via freezing casting. Effects of the moisture content and\nfreeze temperature on the refractive index and antireflective capacity\nwere investigated. Refractive index of the coating reached 1.28, and\nthe transmittance gain of a glass slide with the coating was up to\n6.2% at wavelength of 550 nm. The results of this study demonstrate\nthat freeze casting is a feasible and efficient way to fabricate ChNF\nantireflective coatings with lower refractive indexes on large size\nsubstrates at low cost.