Potential Use of Corn Cob Waste as the Base Material of Silica Thin Films for Anti-Reflective Coatings

Abstract

This research involves silica extraction from corn cob waste with the sol-gel method using qualitative and ashless filter paper as a comparison. Anti-reflective coatings, as silica thin films, were synthesized from the extracted silica using dip-coating and spin-coating methods. Extracted silicas were characterized with FTIR, XRF, and XRD, while thin films were characterized with UVVisible spectroscopy. The highest purity of extracted silica obtained was 66.5% using ashless filter paper. Silica thin films synthesized with spin-coating had a better refractive index compared to dipcoating, at 3.6.