Silica-copper oxide composite thin films as solar selective coatings prepared by dipping sol gel

Silica-copper oxide (silica-CuO) composite thin films were prepared by a dipping sol-gel route using ethanolic solutions comprised TEOS and a copper-propionate complex. Sols with different TEOS/Cu-propionate (Si/Cu) molar ratios were prepared and applied on stainless steel substrates using dipping process. During the annealing process, copper-propionate complexes developed into particulate polycrystalline CuO dispersed in a partially crystallized silica matrix, as indicated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. The gel thermal analysis revealed that the prepared material might be stable up to 400°C. The silica-CuO/stainless steel system was characterized as a selective absorber surface and its solar selectivity parameters, absorptance (α), and emittance (ε) were evaluated from UV-NIR reflectance data. The solar parameters of such a system were mostly affected by the thickness and phase composition of the SiO2-CuO film. Interestingly, the best solar parameters (α = 0.92 and ε = 0.2) were associated to the thinnest films, which comprised a CuO-Cu2O mixture immersed in the silica matrix, as indicated by XPS. Copyrigth © 2008 E. Barrera-Calva et al.