Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.103, No.3, 1536-1541, 2020
Incorporation of spherical shaped CuO@SiO2 light microtraps into CuCoMnOx spinels to enhance solar absorbance
CuCoMnOx spinels were fabricated onto aluminum substrates via sol-gel processing. The aluminum substrates were anodized to produce rough substrate surface, so to achieve diffuse reflection of incoming light. First, hollow copper nanospheres CuO particles have been produced with a size of 715 +/- 15 nm. The copper oxide nanospheres were coated with SiO2 yielding to a total diameter of 980 +/- 30 nm comparable to the wavelength of FIR light. The resulting materials were characterized structurally and morphologically. The coatings were assessed with respect to absorptance alpha(sol) and emittance epsilon(T) behavior, determining the alpha/epsilon ratio. In case of CuO@SiO2 microspheres incorporation into CuCoMnOx spinel coatings, the alpha/epsilon ratio reached the value alpha/epsilon of 30. The light trapping/scattering effect of CuO@SiO2 microspheres incorporation was demonstrated by the variation of the concentration up to 1 wt% and determination of alpha/epsilon ratio. Based on these measurements, the alpha/epsilon ratio increases linearly with increasing CuO@SiO2 microspheres concentration.