A New High-Temperature Durable Absorber Material Solution through a Spinel-Type High Solar Absorptivity Coating on Ti₂AlC MAX Phase Material

Abstract

Enhancing the operating temperature of concentrating solar power systems is a promising way to obtain higher system efficiency and thus enhance their competitiveness. One major barrier is the unavailability of suitable solar absorber materials for operation at higher temperatures. In this work, we report on a new high-temperature absorber material by combining Ti2AlC MAX phase material and iron–cobalt–chromite spinel coating/paint. This durable material solution exhibits excellent performance, passing the thermal stability test in an open-air environment at a temperature of 1250 °C for 400 h and at 1300 °C for 200 h. The results show that the black spinel coating can offer a stable high solar absorptivity in the range of 0.877–0.894 throughout the 600 h test under high temperatures. These solar absorptivity values are even 1.6–3.3% higher than that for the sintered SiC ceramic that is a widely used solar absorber material. Divergence of solar absorptivity during these relatively long testing periods is less than 1.1%, indicating remarkable stability of the absorber material. Furthermore, considering the simple application process of the coating/painting utilizing a brush followed by curing at relatively low temperatures (room temperature, 95 and 260 °C in sequence), this absorber material shows the potential for large-scale, high-temperature solar thermal applications.

H+−H− Pairs in Partially Oxidized MAX Phases for Bifunctional Catalytic Conversion of Furfurals into Linear Ketones

“…52-0875, 29-0095, and 40-1132) without the detection of metal oxides (Figure 1A). [29,30,32] Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images confirmed the size distribution of Pd nanoparticles for these catalysts as 3-5 nm (Figure S2). The CO adsorption results indicate a high Pd dispersity of approximately 15 % (Figure S3, Table 1).…”

Toxicity assessment of nano-sized MAX phases: considerations for safe-by-design approaches

“…Boatemaa et al reported that Ti 3 AlC 2 and Ti 2 AlC resist oxidation in the 900–1400 °C temperature range, 23 and Wang et al confirmed the potential of Ti 2 AlC to be utilized as a high-temperature solar absorber material. 24 The MAX phase has the potential to be applied to nuclear engineering as it is resistant to radiation as well as heat. 25 At the evaluation of neutronics and neutron radiation damage response for in-core nuclear applications, Ti 3 AlC 2 , and Ti 2 AlC showed potential, 4 Whittle et al also confirmed the radiation tolerance of Ti 3 AlC 2 .…”

Highly efficient and durable solar thermal energy harvesting via scalable hierarchical coatings inspired by stony corals

“…Prior to the long-term ageing tests, we conducted shorter-term (r100 h) isothermal ageing (r850 1C) with two substrates used in CST applications (Note 4, ESI †), as the substrate is a determining factor in the durability of the coating. 14,34 The coral-structured coating was found to be highly stable on both substrates with a high solar-weighted absorptance (497.3% for the preliminary macro-scale morphology in Fig. 3f).…”

“…Improvement of receiver coatings for such large temperatures has been identified as one of the top priorities in the CST community. 33 High-temperature solar absorbers that can withstand temperatures above 1300 °C have been developed, 34 but these are limited to special corrosive-resistance substrates with a similar thermal expansion coefficient to the coating. These types of substrates are yet to be adopted in the CST industry due to their inferior strength compared to superalloys.…”