Tungsten Nanowire Metamaterials as Selective Solar Thermal Absorbers by Excitation of Magnetic Polaritons

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jui-Yung Chang ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
Liping Wang
Keyword(s):  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Incident Angle ◽  
Nanowire Array ◽  
Geometric Parameters ◽  
Radiative Properties ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Fdtd Simulation ◽  
Nanowire Diameter ◽  
Solar Absorber

The present study focuses on nanowire-based metamaterials selective solar absorbers. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation is employed for numerically designing a broadband solar absorber made of lossy tungsten nanowires which exhibit spectral selectivity due to the excitation of magnetic polariton (MP). An inductor–capacitor circuit model of the nanowire array is developed in order to predict the resonance wavelengths of the MP harmonic modes. The effects of geometric parameters such as nanowire diameter, height, and array period are investigated and understood by the sweep of geometric parameters, which tunes the MP resonance and the resulting optical and radiative properties. In addition, the optical properties and conversion efficiency of this nanowire-based absorber are both demonstrated to be insensitive on incidence angles, which illustrates the potential applicability of the proposed nanowire-based metamaterial as a high-efficiency wide-angle selective solar absorber. The results show that the nanowire-based selective solar absorber with base geometric parameters can reach 83.6% of conversion efficiency with low independence of incident angle. The results will facilitate the design of novel low-cost and high-efficiency materials for enhancing solar thermal energy harvesting and conversion.

Tungsten Nanowire Metamaterials as Selective Solar Thermal Absorbers by Excitation of Magnetic Polaritons

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-Y. Chang ◽  
H. Wang ◽  
L. P. Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Efficiency ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Nanowire Array ◽  
Radiative Properties ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Solar Thermal Energy ◽  
Nanowire Diameter ◽  
Solar Absorber ◽  
Potential Applicability ◽  
Magnetic Polariton

The present study focuses on nanowire based metamaterials with excitation of magnetic polariton (MP) as selective solar absorbers. Finite-difference time-domain simulation is employed for numerically designing a broadband solar absorber made of lossy tungsten nanowires which exhibit spectral selectivity due to the excitation of MP. An inductor-capacitor circuit model of the nanowire array is developed in order to predict the resonance wavelengths of the MP harmonic modes. The effects of geometric parameters such as nanowire diameter, height, and array period are investigated and understood on tuning the magnetic polariton resonance and the resulting optical and radiative properties. In addition, the independence of incidence angles is demonstrated, which illustrates the potential applicability of the nanowire-based metamaterial as a high-efficiency wide-angle selective solar absorber. The results will facilitate the design of novel low-cost and high-efficiency materials for enhancing solar thermal energy harvesting and conversion.

Enhanced Solar Energy Harvest for Power Generation From Brayton Cycle

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Neber ◽  
Hohyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Silicon Carbide ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Black Body ◽  
Body Cavity ◽  
Energy Harvest ◽  
Solar Absorber

A scalable and modular solar thermal dish-Brayton system is proposed in response to growing demand for renewable energy and distributed power generation. Existing dish systems require large areas to achieve sufficient conversion efficiency for the cost of the system. Also, the conversion efficiencies are limited by the materials and manufacturing processes. This paper proposes a low cost, high efficiency solar absorber as the core of a dish-Brayton system with the capability to achieve much higher operating temperatures than current absorbers. A simple cylindrical part, forming a black body cavity, is fabricated from silicon carbide for high absorptivity at a low fabrication cost. The manufacturing process consists of a simple casting and sintering procedure, which is a common way of creating ceramic parts. Another cylindrical shell is fabricated to cover the outer surface of the black body cavity, creating a channel for air to pass through. The high thermal conductivity of the silicon carbide ensures the efficient heat transfer between the solar absorber and the air. The entire solar energy absorber is designed to heat air up to 1500 K, which would improve energy conversion efficiency of concentrated solar power generation based on 1270 K by 20%. Analysis and test results on a scaled device are presented.

Pyrazolium Phase Change Materials for Solar-Thermal and Wind Energy Storage

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Matuszek ◽  
R. Vijayaraghavan ◽  
Craig Forsyth ◽  
Surianarayanan Mahadevan ◽  
Mega Kar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change Materials ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Energy Storage Materials ◽  
Solar Thermal Energy ◽  
Storage Materials

Renewable energy has the ultimate capacity to resolve the environmental and scarcity challenges of the world’s energy supplies. However, both the utility of these sources and the economics of their implementation are strongly limited by their intermittent nature; inexpensive means of energy storage therefore needs to be part of the design. Distributed thermal energy storage is surprisingly underdeveloped in this context, in part due to the lack of advanced storage materials. Here, we describe a novel family of thermal energy storage materials based on pyrazolium cation, that operate in the 100-220°C temperature range, offering safe, inexpensive capacity, opening new pathways for high efficiency collection and storage of both solar-thermal energy, as well as excess wind power. We probe the molecular origins of the high thermal energy storage capacity of these ionic materials and demonstrate extended cycling that provides a basis for further scale up and development.

scholarly journals Free-standing reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membrane for salt-rejecting solar desalination via size effect

Nanophotonics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (15) ◽  
pp. 4601-4608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengyu Zhuang ◽  
Hanyu Fu ◽  
Ning Xu ◽  
Bo Li ◽  
Jun Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Graphene Oxide ◽  
Reduced Graphene Oxide ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
High Salinity ◽  
Interlayer Spacing ◽  
Structural Instability ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Solar Desalination ◽  
Reduced Graphene

AbstractInterfacial solar vapor generation has revived the solar-thermal-based desalination due to its high conversion efficiency of solar energy. However, most solar evaporators reported so far suffer from severe salt-clogging problems during solar desalination, leading to performance degradation and structural instability. Here, we demonstrate a free-standing salt-rejecting reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membrane serving as an efficient, stable, and antisalt-fouling solar evaporator. The evaporation rate of the membrane reaches up to 1.27 kg m−2 h−1 (solar–thermal conversion efficiency ∼79%) under one sun, out of 3.5 wt% brine. More strikingly, due to the tailored narrow interlayer spacing, the rGO membrane can effectively reject ions, preventing salt accumulation even for high salinity brine (∼8 wt% concentration). With enabled salt-antifouling capability, flexibility, as well as stability, our rGO membrane serves as a promising solar evaporator for high salinity brine treatment.

scholarly journals On-chip trans-dimensional plasmonic router

Nanophotonics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 3357-3365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaohua Dong ◽  
Qing Zhang ◽  
Guangtao Cao ◽  
Jincheng Ni ◽  
Ting Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Incident Angle ◽  
Reciprocal Lattice ◽  
Plasmonic Waveguide ◽  
Optical Diffraction ◽  
Local Dynamic ◽  
Phase Gradient ◽  
On Chip ◽  
Plasmon Polaritons

AbstractPlasmons, as emerging optical diffraction-unlimited information carriers, promise the high-capacity, high-speed, and integrated photonic chips. The on-chip precise manipulations of plasmon in an arbitrary platform, whether two-dimensional (2D) or one-dimensional (1D), appears demanding but non-trivial. Here, we proposed a meta-wall, consisting of specifically designed meta-atoms, that allows the high-efficiency transformation of propagating plasmon polaritons from 2D platforms to 1D plasmonic waveguides, forming the trans-dimensional plasmonic routers. The mechanism to compensate the momentum transformation in the router can be traced via a local dynamic phase gradient of the meta-atom and reciprocal lattice vector. To demonstrate such a scheme, a directional router based on phase-gradient meta-wall is designed to couple 2D SPP to a 1D plasmonic waveguide, while a unidirectional router based on grating metawall is designed to route 2D SPP to the arbitrarily desired direction along the 1D plasmonic waveguide by changing the incident angle of 2D SPP. The on-chip routers of trans-dimensional SPP demonstrated here provide a flexible tool to manipulate propagation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and may pave the way for designing integrated plasmonic network and devices.

scholarly journals High-Efficiency, Dual-Band Beam Splitter Based on an All-Dielectric Quasi-Continuous Metasurface

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3184
Author(s):  
Jing Li ◽  
Yonggang He ◽  
Han Ye ◽  
Tiesheng Wu ◽  
Yumin Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wavelength Range ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Antenna Arrays ◽  
Beam Splitter ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Visible Region ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Dual Band ◽  
Phase Gradient ◽  
Total Transmission

Metasurface-based beam splitters attracted huge interest for their superior properties compared with conventional ones made of bulk materials. The previously reported designs adopted discrete metasurfaces with the limitation of a discontinuous phase profile. In this paper, we propose a dual-band beam splitter, based on an anisotropic quasi-continuous metasurface, by exploring the optical responses under x-polarized (with an electric field parallel to the direction of the phase gradient) and y-polarized incidences. The adopted metasurface consists of two identical trapezoidal silicon antenna arrays with opposite spatial variations that lead to opposite phase gradients. The operational window of the proposed beam splitter falls in the infrared and visible region, respectively, for x- and y-polarized light, resulting from the different mechanisms. When x-polarized light is incident, the conversion efficiency and total transmission of the beam splitter remains higher than 90% and 0.74 within the wavelength range from 969 nm to 1054 nm, respectively. In this condition, each array can act as a beam splitter of unequal power. For y-polarized incidence, the maximum conversion efficiency and transmission reach approximately 100% and 0.85, while the values remain higher than 90% and 0.65 in the wavelength range from 687 nm to 710 nm, respectively. In this case, each array can be viewed as an effective beam deflector. We anticipate that it can play a key role in future integrated optical devices.

Broadband, High‐Efficiency and Wide‐Incident‐Angle Anomalous Reflection in Groove Metagratings

2021 ◽  
pp. 2100149
Author(s):  
Chuanbao Liu ◽  
Jingjin He ◽  
Ji Zhou ◽  
Jianchun Xu ◽  
Ke Bi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Efficiency ◽  
Incident Angle ◽  
Anomalous Reflection

Incident-angle-controlled semitransparent colored perovskite solar cells with improved efficiency exploiting a multilayer dielectric mirror

Nanoscale ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (37) ◽  
pp. 13983-13989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyu-Tae Lee ◽  
Ji-Yun Jang ◽  
Sang Jin Park ◽  
Song Ah Ok ◽  
Hui Joon Park
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Visible Light ◽  
Power Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Incident Angle ◽  
Power Conversion ◽  
Perovskite Solar Cells ◽  
Dielectric Mirror ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Multilayer Dielectric

See-through colored perovskite solar cells that exploit a dielectric mirror are demonstrated. The dielectric mirror strongly reflects a wide range of visible light back to a photoactive layer for efficient light-harvesting, yielding 10.12% power conversion efficiency, with iridescent semitransparent colors.

Realizing high-efficiency power generation in low-cost PbS-based thermoelectric materials

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 579-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binbin Jiang ◽  
Xixi Liu ◽  
Qi Wang ◽  
Juan Cui ◽  
Baohai Jia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Thermoelectric Materials ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Thermoelectric Module ◽  
High Conversion ◽  
High Conversion Efficiency

A high conversion efficiency of 11.2% was realized in a low-cost PbS-based segmented thermoelectric module.

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