Mesoporous silica nanoparticles are used to fabricate single layer anti-reflection coatings on polymer substrates. High optical performance is achieved by using a binder system in conjunction with the mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The ratio of nanoparticles to binder and the process conditions were used to optimize the optical and mechanical properties of the film. This study investigates how the refractive index of the nanoparticle coating can be optimized such that it matches the properties required for zero reflectance of the underlying polymer substrate. The addition of a binder results in a mechanically robust anti-reflection coating, which shows improvement on current available technology. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.