Scalable, "Dip-and-dry" Fabrication of a Wide-Angle Plasmonic Selective Absorber for High-efficiency Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple, cost-effective 'dip-and-dry' method to create wide-angle, high-efficiency solar-thermal absorbers with excellent stability, outperforming many existing solutions in spectral selectivity and durability.

Contribution

It presents a novel room-temperature fabrication technique for plasmonic nanostructure-coated foils that achieves high performance and stability without complex processes or coatings.

Findings

Achieves high solar absorptance (up to 0.97 at 35°) and low thermal emittance (0.10).

Demonstrates mechanical and thermal stability up to 200°C.

Offers an environmentally friendly, inexpensive fabrication method.

Abstract

A galvanic displacement reaction-based, room-temperature "dip-and-dry" technique is demonstrated for fabricating selectively solar-absorbing plasmonic nanostructure-coated foils (PNFs). The technique, which allows for facile tuning of the PNFs' spectral reflectance to suit different radiative and thermal environments, yields PNFs which exhibit excellent, wide-angle solar absorptance (0.96 at 15{\deg}, to 0.97 at 35{\deg}, to 0.79 at 80{\deg}) and low hemispherical thermal emittance (0.10) without the aid of antireflection coatings. The thermal emittance is on par with those of notable selective solar absorbers (SSAs) in the literature, while the wide-angle solar absorptance surpasses those of previously reported SSAs with comparable optical selectivities. In addition, the PNFs show promising mechanical and thermal stabilities at temperatures of up to 200{\deg}C. Along with the performance of the PNFs, the simplicity, inexpensiveness and environment-friendliness of the "dip-and-dry" technique makes it an appealing alternative to current methods for fabricating selective solar absorbers.