Composite Superhydrophobic Coating with Transparency and Thermal Insulation for Glass Curtain Walls

In this paper, the preparation of a transparent superhydrophobic composite coating with a thermal insulation function using antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) nanoparticles is proposed, which has advantages of being mass-producible and low-cost. In short, nanosilica and ATO are used as raw materials for constructing rough structures, and superhydrophobic coatings are obtained by mixing and adding binders after modification of each, which are then applied to the surface of various substrates by spraying to obtain a transparent superhydrophobic coating with a heat-insulating function. The specific role of each nanoparticle is discussed through comparative experiments that illustrate the mechanism by which the two particles construct rough structures. The coating achieves unique thermal insulation properties while possessing excellent superhydrophobicity (WCA of ∼163° and WSA of ∼3°) and high light transmission (∼70%). Heat-shielding experiments have demonstrated that the composite coating effectively reduces the room temperature by approximately 19% for the same irradiation time. The coating achieves a balanced improvement in visible transmittance, thermal insulation, and superhydrophobicity. In addition, the coating’s self-cleaning properties, mechanical properties, chemical weathering resistance, high-temperature resistance, and anti-icing properties were verified through various experiments.