Solution-Processed All-Ceramic Plasmonic Metamaterials for Efficient Solar-Thermal Conversion over 100-727 °C

Low-cost and large-area solar-thermal absorbers with superior spectral selectivity and excellent thermal stability are vital for efficient and large-scale solar-thermal conversion applications, such as space heating, desalination, ice mitigation, photothermal catalysis, and concentrating solar power. Few state-of-the-art selective absorbers are qualified for both low- (<200 degrees C) and high-temperature (>600 degrees C) applications due to insufficient spectral selectivity or thermal stability over a wide temperature range. Here, a high-performance plasmonic metamaterial selective absorber is developed by facile solution-based processes via assembling an ultrathin (approximate to 120 nm) titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticle film on a TiN mirror. Enabled by the synergetic in-plane plasmon and out-of-plane Fabry-Perot resonances, the all-ceramic plasmonic metamaterial simultaneously achieves high, full-spectrum solar absorption (95%), low mid-IR emission (3% at 100 degrees C), and excellent stability over a temperature range of 100-727 degrees C, even outperforming most vacuum-deposited absorbers at their specific operating temperatures. The competitive performance of the solution-processed absorber is accompanied by a significant cost reduction compared with vacuum-deposited absorbers. All these merits render it a cost-effective, universal solution to offering high efficiency (89-93%) for both low- and high-temperature solar-thermal applications.