# Sample, Scalable Route to Produce Transparent Superhydrophobic/Hydrophilic Film Surfaces
## 1 Introduction
The average transmission and WCA of the coated solar cells increased by 95% and 161\({}^{\circ}\), respectively, and the coated PV panel can regain more than 90% of its efficiency after being washed with water, as well as successfully removing dust at tilt angles as low as 10\({}^{\circ}\). Recently, there has been a lot of attention towards developing a self-cleaning coating solution for PV panel glass that can endure the harsh elements of the outdoors. Silicon dioxide (SiO\({}_{2}\)) is frequently employed to create a hydrophobic and self-cleaning coating for the cover glass. The dip-coating process combined with heat treatment to create a silica coating made up of base- and acid-catalyzed silica sol was developed by [22]. At 632.8 nm, the mixed silica covering has a refractive index of 1.35. The glass substrate's optical transmission is increased by 6% in the wavelength range of 400 nm-900 nm owing to the mixed silica coating's low refractive index. With a water contact angle of 162\({}^{\circ}\), the hybrid silica coating demonstrates superhydrophobic and self-cleaning properties. Ref. [23] used the spray technique to create a clear, long-lasting superhydrophobic coating for cover glass that can cure at room temperature. Superhydrophobic silica coating was demonstrated by utilizing the spray-coating process. More than 85% of the coating's transmission is visible. The employment of a curing agent to improve the hydrophobicity, adhesion strength, and optical transmittance of the coated glass substantially impacts this research. The produced coating demonstrates good self-cleaning and anti-fouling properties despite being applied using a straightforward manufacturing process with a high-water contact angle of 160\({}^{\circ}\) and a low hysteresis angle of 3\({}^{\circ}\). [PERSON] and [PERSON] demonstrated a self-cleaning coating that is superhydrophobic and photocatalytic using a new sol-gel deposition technique called the \"aerosol-gel\" procedure [24]. This method is more compatible with in-line industrial coating on flat or non-flat surfaces at a high throughput rate than the conventional sol-gel coating [25]. A flexible coating, which can be applied on any glass surface and has an easy spray-manufacturing procedure, is highly sought after by end users as it saves time and energy. Considering this context, [PERSON] et al. [26] suggested a straightforward spray approach for the hydrophobic silicon dioxide (SiO\({}_{2}\)) nanoparticles on the PV panel, which can be cured at room temperature. Since the proposed SiO\({}_{2}\) nanoparticles produce high WCA above 90 degrees, it proves that the PV panels' effectiveness has increased. At Wolaita Sodo University in Ethiopia, a coated PV panel demonstrated excellent self-cleaning capabilitiesover an extended period in real working conditions. After 45 days, the PV panel's output power increased by 15% [27]. The range of the daily radiation was 6.5 to 8.0 kW/m\({}^{2}\). The hydrophobic coating can eliminate dust particles using only fresh air. The high-speed wind enhances the self-cleaning process, which also increases the coated PV panel's overall efficiency. In addition, compared with an uncoated PV panel, its anti-reflection qualities can lower the temperature of the coated PV panel by 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C.  
In this paper, we propose an easy way of fabricating superhydrophobic/hydrophilic coating using a mixture of silica-based nanoparticles and sol-gel as an initiative for a self-cleaning solar panel as an alternative for the costly classical method.