Development and Testing of Abrasion Resistant Hard Coats For Polymer Film Reflectors: Preprint
Reflective polymer film technology can significantly reduce the cost of solar reflectors and installed Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants by both reduced material cost and lower weight. One challenge of polymer reflectors in the CSP environment pertains to contact cleaning methods typically used with glass mirrors. Such contact cleaning methods can scratch the surface of polymer reflectors andthereby reduce specular reflectance. ReflecTech, Inc. (a subsidiary of SkyFuel, Inc.) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) initiated a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to devise and develop an abrasion resistant coating (ARC) suitable for deposition onto polymer based mirror film. A number of candidate ARC products were identified as candidate formulations.Industrial collaborators prepared samples having their ARCs deposited onto ReflecTech Mirror Film pre-laminated to aluminum sheet substrates. Samples were provided for evaluation and subjected to baseline (unweathered) and accelerated exposure conditions and subsequently characterized for abrasion resistance and adhesion. An advanced ARC product has been identified that exhibits outstandinginitial abrasion resistance and adhesion to ReflecTech Mirror Film. These properties were also retained after exposure to the various accelerated stress conditions. This material has been successfully manufactured as a 1.5 m wide roll-to-roll construction in a production environment.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 991555
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5500-49273; TRN: US201021%%198
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at SolarPACES 2010, 21-24 September 2010, Perpignan, France
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ABRASION
ADHESION
ALUMINIUM
CLEANING
COATINGS
CONSTRUCTION
DEPOSITION
EVALUATION
GLASS
MIRRORS
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY
POLYMERS
PRODUCTION
SOLAR REFLECTORS
SUBSTRATES
TESTING
abrasion resistant hardcoat
ARC
polymer film reflector
specular reflectance
coating adhesion