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Title: Anti-soiling and highly transparent coatings with multi-scale features

Abstract

We report that soiling of optical surfaces due to sand and dust accumulation is the main cause for decreased efficiency of concentrating solar power and photovoltaic installations in desert areas. Nanostructured coatings with tailored surface roughness can reduce the rate of soil accumulation and maintain the high optical performance of the solar mirrors and cover glass. Here, we investigate the correlation between the size and structure of the surface features of the coating and its anti-soiling and optical properties. To control the morphology of the surface features we developed two types of coating: (1) based on small size (30–50 nm) silica particles with nanostructured surface and (2) based on unstructured nanoparticles with bimodal size distribution (80 and 35 nm). We tailored the surface features of the coatings to achieve synergistic improvements over different length-scales and thus decrease the adhesion force between the soil particles and the surface. Adhesion force measurements were performed using atomic force microscopy. The adhesion force and energy required to separate a silica particle from the surface of coated solar glass was significantly lower than the respective values from the surface of uncoated solar glass. A falling sand abrasion test, modeled after the procedure in ASTM D968,more » was performed. The optical properties of coated and uncoated solar glass were measured before and after the soiling test. Coated solar mirror samples were tested in the field. The results of the field test provided evidence that the anti-soiling coating is effective at reducing soiling and improving the specular reflectances of the coated mirrors. Finally, the use of the developed anti-soiling coating can be extended to other power-grid applications where reducing the soil accumulation is valuable.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Energy and Transportation Science Division
  2. Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (United States)
  3. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Department of Chemistry
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Chemical Sciences Division; Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Department of Chemistry
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science and Technology Division
  6. NRG Energy Services, Houston, TX (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
OSTI Identifier:
1474647
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1642297
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 188; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0927-0248
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 14 SOLAR ENERGY; Anti-soiling; Anti-reflective; Superhydrophobic; Adhesion force; Concentrating solar power

Citation Formats

Polyzos, Georgios, Sharma, Jaswinder K., Smith, D Barton, Tuncer, Enis, Park, Jaehyeung, Voylov, Dmitry N., Sokolov, Alexei P., Meyer III, Harry M., and Aman, Matthew. Anti-soiling and highly transparent coatings with multi-scale features. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2018.09.011.
Polyzos, Georgios, Sharma, Jaswinder K., Smith, D Barton, Tuncer, Enis, Park, Jaehyeung, Voylov, Dmitry N., Sokolov, Alexei P., Meyer III, Harry M., & Aman, Matthew. Anti-soiling and highly transparent coatings with multi-scale features. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.09.011
Polyzos, Georgios, Sharma, Jaswinder K., Smith, D Barton, Tuncer, Enis, Park, Jaehyeung, Voylov, Dmitry N., Sokolov, Alexei P., Meyer III, Harry M., and Aman, Matthew. Tue . "Anti-soiling and highly transparent coatings with multi-scale features". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.09.011. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1474647.
@article{osti_1474647,
title = {Anti-soiling and highly transparent coatings with multi-scale features},
author = {Polyzos, Georgios and Sharma, Jaswinder K. and Smith, D Barton and Tuncer, Enis and Park, Jaehyeung and Voylov, Dmitry N. and Sokolov, Alexei P. and Meyer III, Harry M. and Aman, Matthew},
abstractNote = {We report that soiling of optical surfaces due to sand and dust accumulation is the main cause for decreased efficiency of concentrating solar power and photovoltaic installations in desert areas. Nanostructured coatings with tailored surface roughness can reduce the rate of soil accumulation and maintain the high optical performance of the solar mirrors and cover glass. Here, we investigate the correlation between the size and structure of the surface features of the coating and its anti-soiling and optical properties. To control the morphology of the surface features we developed two types of coating: (1) based on small size (30–50 nm) silica particles with nanostructured surface and (2) based on unstructured nanoparticles with bimodal size distribution (80 and 35 nm). We tailored the surface features of the coatings to achieve synergistic improvements over different length-scales and thus decrease the adhesion force between the soil particles and the surface. Adhesion force measurements were performed using atomic force microscopy. The adhesion force and energy required to separate a silica particle from the surface of coated solar glass was significantly lower than the respective values from the surface of uncoated solar glass. A falling sand abrasion test, modeled after the procedure in ASTM D968, was performed. The optical properties of coated and uncoated solar glass were measured before and after the soiling test. Coated solar mirror samples were tested in the field. The results of the field test provided evidence that the anti-soiling coating is effective at reducing soiling and improving the specular reflectances of the coated mirrors. Finally, the use of the developed anti-soiling coating can be extended to other power-grid applications where reducing the soil accumulation is valuable.},
doi = {10.1016/j.solmat.2018.09.011},
journal = {Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells},
number = C,
volume = 188,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Works referenced in this record:

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Transparent superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic nanoparticle textured coatings: comparative study of anti-soiling performance
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Water Saving in CSP Plants by a Novel Hydrophilic Anti-Soiling Coating for Solar Reflectors
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Testing the Durability of Anti-Soiling Coatings for Solar Cover Glass by Outdoor Exposure in Denmark
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