Nature-Inspired Anti-Reflective Texturization for Solar Energy Applications

Solar energy is a source of renewable energy that is harnessed using a range of technologies. With the development of humanity's interest in solar energy, there is a need to collect and store it. However, the current photovoltaic cells that are used to collect solar energy are far from being optimized, and their further development is in much demand. While there are many factors related to the low efficiency of solar cells, the main challenge is in solving optical losses. In this review, a comprehensive overview of texturization as occurring in nature is provided and recently reported as a technique to increase the transparency of surfaces. The basic concepts and typical patterns are introduced, followed by a discussion of representative works and their uniqueness. Furthermore, insights regarding the future of the emerging domain of nature-inspired anti-reflective patterns, with the goal of encouraging researchers to enhance solar cell efficiency and expand the utilization of such patterns for various applications are presented.