biostudies-literatureUnknown10(1)Zhang TProgram for International SPorous silica anti-reflection (AR) films are of importance in solar cells' photon harvest. However, the usual utilized method to fabricate AR films is the two-step method since the formation of porous silica NPs (first step) and silica coating sol (second step) always require chemical systems at distinct pH values. To reduce the complexity of the process, we choose cationic emulsion as an approach to produce the porosity and propose a convenient one-step route to get high-performance antireflective films. A single layer SiO₂ anti-reflective (AR) film with high optical transmittance up to 97.5% at 740 nm was fabricated from composite sol that was made from cationic emulsion nanolatex and tetraethylorthosilicate under acid catalysis condition. After calcination, the transmittance Scientific reports14224https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC7450068biostudies-literatureA one-step mild acid route to fabricate high performance porous anti-reflective optical films from cationic polymeric nanolatex.PMC7450068Yi XZhang TQiao XXiao YShen BWang ZZhao YJia JfalseA one-step mild acid route to fabricate high performance porous anti-reflective optical films from cationic polymeric nanolatex.Porous silica anti-reflection (AR) films are of importance in solar cells' photon harvest. However, the usual utilized method to fabricate AR films is the two-step method since the formation of porous silica NPs (first step) and silica coating sol (second step) always require chemical systems at distinct pH values. To reduce the complexity of the process, we choose cationic emulsion as an approach to produce the porosity and propose a convenient one-step route to get high-performance antireflective films. A single layer SiO₂ anti-reflective (AR) film with high optical transmittance up to 97.5% at 740 nm was fabricated from composite sol that was made from cationic emulsion nanolatex and tetraethylorthosilicate under acid catalysis condition. After calcination, the transmittance 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z2020 Aug2025-04-03T22:39:35.347Z2020-09-05T07:09:42ZS-EPMC74500683284818610.1038/s41598-020-71200-w