Multistep immersion casting of plasmonic nanoparticle assemblage for efficient solar shortwave radiation absorption

Abstract

The study of a scalable absorber, which efficiently converts shortwave radiation to heat energy, is the foundational requirement for viable solar energy harvesting. Plasmonic and nano-particle are the solution, which can attain technical and economic requirement of the absorber. However, the issue of scalability and performance need to be enhanced to a greater extent. This paper demonstrates an auto-catalytic reaction based, electroless multistep immersion deposit technique for manufacturing of plasmonic nano-particle based solar shortwave radiation absorber. The technique, which can enable controlled assemblage of nano-particle layers on an aluminium substrate to achieve excellent absorptance and abatement of thermal emittance. The present work reports a scaled-up absorber, which can obtain mean determined absorptance of 0.93 at 80°C and thermal emittance of 0.06 at 80°C for shortwave radiation of 300 nm to 1800 nm wavelengths. Because of the porous structure of nano-particle deposit, the absorber shows excellent mechanical and thermal properties at high temperature up to 120°C.This paper reports a plasmonic absorber with aluminium (EC1100 grade) mini-channel heat receiver as a substrate, the most novel and practical plasmonic solar absorber reported till date. The distinct scalable fabrication technique combined with enhanced performance guide it towards inexpensive, large- scale manufacturing of plasmonic solar thermal heat receiver.