Hybrid-structured air-stable solar selective absorber on flexible textured silicon

• Published in: Solar energy Vol. 231; pp. 837 - 845
• Main Authors: Yang, Jiale, Shen, Honglie, Yang, Zhiyan, Zhao, Qichen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2022; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Absorbers; Air-stability; Annealing; Ceramic coatings; Cermet coatings; Cermets; Hybrid-structured solar selective absorber; Oxidation; Oxidation resistance; Selectivity; Silicon; Silicon substrates; Solar energy; Structural stability; Substrates; Thermal stability; Ultra-thin textured surface; Ultra-thin textured surface; Hybrid-structured solar selective absorber; Cermet coatings; Air-stability
• ISSN: 0038-092X; 1471-1257
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2021.12.017

•An air-stable hybrid-structure solar selective absorber (hs-SSA) was made on Si.•The ultra-thin textured Si (ut-Si) showed excellent flexibility and absorptivity.•The hs-SSA performed good thermal stability in the air and vacuum.•The Δα/α and Δε/ε were only 0.31% and 1.18% for air-annealing at 250 °C for 120 h.•Its α/ε keet at 0.962/0.352 after annealing at 500 °C in a vacuum for 72 h. A kind of air-stable hybrid-structured solar selective absorber (hs-SSA) with enhanced thermal stability is prepared by combining ultra-thin textured silicon (ut-Si) with cermet coating. The ut-Si obtained by the wafer thinning and fast texturization method shows excellent flexibility and light-trapping ability. Then the W-WOx coatings are deposited onto the ut-Si substrate in a spreading manner on the pyramid-like structure. The as-deposited hs-SSA exhibits good light-harvesting capability with spectral selectivity (α/ε) of 0.968/0.340. Additionally, the ut-Si shows its superiority in oxidation resistance and chemical stability compared with the traditional metal substrate. After 120-h air-annealing at 250 °C and 72-h vacuum-annealing at 500 °C, the performance losses are within a tiny and reasonable range, showing excellent chemical, structural and optical stability, exhibiting excellent application potential in medium-temperature solar harvesting field.