Oct 20 2012
Martin Joly of the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory successfully defended his PhD thesis on black selective coating for durable thermal solar absorbers and orange coloured interferential filters for photovoltaic collectors. The public defence of his thesis will take place on 22 November 2012.
Nanocomposite coatings for solar absorbers
In his PhD thesis, Martin Joly presents the development of nanostructured coatings for the improvement of technologies that convert solar energy into heat and electricity and their optimisation with a view to industrial scale production. Two applications were investigated: chromium-free black selective coating for durable selective solar thermal absorbers and orange coloured interferential filters for photovoltaic collectors with a view to their architectural integration.
As compared to the most durable solar absorber coatings today, the novel black selective nanocomposite coating - for which a patent application has been filed - has the main advantage of a highly superior stability at elevated temperatures in air, combined with an improved corrosion resistance. Its remarkable properties make the novel nanocomposite coating especially interesting for solar thermal electricity generation in large-scale solar power plants.
The orange coloured interferential filters allow a new approach in roof integration of photovoltaic modules. A novel photovoltaic module glazing has been developed, which meets the market's expectations with regard to such a product with a relative performance reduction of 10 to 15% in comparison with an identical collector without a filter. The multilayered coating for which another patent application has been filed is deposited on the photovoltaic module glazing through reactive magnetron sputtering. An industrial prototype has been produced.
Martin Joly's thesis was supervised by Dr Andreas Schueler.
Source: http://actu.epfl.ch/