A solar selective absorber (SSA) with high solar absorptance
and
low thermal emittance is significant for solar–thermal applications
to improve their solar–thermal conversion efficiencies. Developing
high-temperature stable and easily manufactured SSAs is critical in
next-generation solar power systems. In this work, a simple and general
method by in situ oxidizing a commercial alloy was proposed to prepare
high-temperature stable SSAs, which can be used on various commercial
alloy materials (such as stainless steel and W–Cu alloy) and
complex geometry structures to adapt to different solar–thermal
applications. Further analysis showed that the selective spectrum
was achieved by the high absorptance of metal oxide in the solar
band and the low emittance of alloy substrates in the mid-infrared
band. Taking the stainless steel 304 as an example, the average solar
absorptance (α̅solar) and thermal emittance
(ε̅IR) can reach 0.848/0.171 after oxidizing
at 900 °C for 2 h or 0.824/0.098 after oxidizing at 800 °C
for 2 h. Meanwhile, the SSAs can operate stably for more than 144
h in air at 600 °C due to the high-temperature generation of
Cr2O3. These results indicate that in situ oxidizing
commercial alloys can be a simple, low-cost, and scalable manufacturing
strategy to prepare high-temperature stable SSAs in various solar–thermal
applications.