Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Environmentally sustainable electroplating of selective cobalt-chromium coating on stainless steel for efficient solar collectors
Umeå University, Sweden; Absolicon Solar Collector AB, Sweden.
Umeå University, Sweden.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Bioeconomy and Health, Material and Surface Design.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4746-6559
Absolicon Solar Collector AB, Sweden.
Show others and affiliations
2022 (English)In: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, ISSN 0927-0248, E-ISSN 1879-3398, Vol. 245, article id 111821Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Half of today's global energy consumption is in the form of heating and cooling. Solar collectors are the most promising sustainable alternative to fossil fuels in this sector. The most important component in a solar collector is the receiver, which by use of a selective surface absorbs and converts solar irradiance to thermal energy. Herein, a novel selective surface for low-to mid-temperature solar collectors is developed, studied and presented. The surface is produced by electroplating a cobalt-chromium coating on a stainless steel substrate using an electrolyte based on a deep eutectic solvent. Our method makes use of trivalent instead of traditionally used hexavalent chromium, which significantly reduces health-related issues and makes it more environmentally benign. We obtain a coating of chromium doped cobalt where the surface exhibits an absorptance and emittance of 0.96 and 0.14, respectively, giving it a solar-to-thermal efficiency of 0.95. An observed loss in optical efficiency, is shown to correlate to an oxidation of the metallic cobalt to Co3O4 at elevated temperatures. We further show that this oxidation can be mitigated by dip-coating a protective silica top coating, which concurrently improves the optical selectivity of the surface. The present selective surface is efficient, cheap, scalable, and easy to produce sustainably, making it competitive to industry standards. We foresee that our method will have impact on the advancement of improved low-to mid-temperature solar collectors, assisting a faster transition towards a sustainable society.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier B.V. , 2022. Vol. 245, article id 111821
Keywords [en]
Cobalt-chromium coating, Deep eutectic solvent, Electroplating, Selective surface, Solar absorber, Trivalent chromium
National Category
Materials Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-59784DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2022.111821Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85132515771OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-59784DiVA, id: diva2:1680455
Available from: 2022-07-04 Created: 2022-07-04 Last updated: 2023-05-25Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Järn, Mikael

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Järn, Mikael
By organisation
Material and Surface Design
In the same journal
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Materials Engineering

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 29 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf