scholarly journals Surface Pattern over a Thick Silica Film to Realize Passive Radiative Cooling

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2637
Author(s):  
Yuhong Liu ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Chang Liu

Passive radiative cooling, which cools an item without any electrical input, has drawn much attention in recent years. In many radiative coolers, silica is widely used due to its high emissivity in the mid-infrared region. However, the performance of a bare silica film is poor due to the occurrence of an emitting dip (about 30% emissivity) in the atmospheric transparent window (8–13 μm). In this work, we demonstrate that the emissivity of silica film can be improved by sculpturing structures on its surface. According to our simulation, over 90% emissivity can be achieved at 8–13 μm when periodical silica deep grating is applied on a plane silica film. With the high emissivity at the atmospheric transparent window and the extremely low absorption in the solar spectrum, the structure has excellent cooling performance (about 100 W/m2). The enhancement is because of the coupling between the incident light with the surface modes. Compared with most present radiative coolers, the proposed cooler is much easier to be fabricated. However, 1-D gratings are sensitive to incident polarization, which leads to a degradation in cooling performance. To solve this problem, we further propose another radiative cooler based on a silica cylinder array. The new cooler’s insensitivity to polarization angle and its average emissivity in the atmospheric transparent window is about 98%. Near-unit emissivity and their simple structures enable the two coolers to be applied in real cooling systems.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Chen ◽  
Jing Liu ◽  
Wen-Zhuang Ma ◽  
Gao-Xiang Yu ◽  
Jing-Qian Chen ◽  
...  

Here, we have theoretically proposed an ideal structure of selective solar absorber with multilayer planar films, which can absorb the incident light throughout the entire solar spectrum (300–2500 nm) and over a wide angular range, whatever the polarization angle of 0°~90°. The efficiency of the proposed absorber is proven by the Finite-Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulation. The average absorption rate over the solar spectrum is up to 96.6%. The planar design is extremely easy to fabricate and modify, and this structure does not require lithographic processes to finish the absorbers. Improvements of the solar absorber on the basis of planar multilayer-film structures is attributed to multiple asymmetric highly lossy Fabry–Perot resonators. Because of having many virtues, such as using different refractory and non-noble metals, having angle and polarization independence, and having ideal absorption for entire solar spectrum, our proposed absorbers are promising candidates for practical industrial production of the solar-energy harvesting.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (36) ◽  
pp. eabb1906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Se-Yeon Heo ◽  
Gil Ju Lee ◽  
Do Hyeon Kim ◽  
Yeong Jae Kim ◽  
Satoshi Ishii ◽  
...  

Passive radiative cooling functions by reflecting the solar spectrum and emitting infrared waves in broadband or selectively. However, cooling enclosed spaces that trap heat by greenhouse effect remains a challenge. We present a Janus emitter (JET) consisting of an Ag–polydimethylsiloxane layer on micropatterned quartz substrate. The induced spoof surface plasmon polariton helps overcome inherent emissivity loss of the polymer and creates near-ideal selective and broadband emission on the separate sides. This design results in not only remarkable surface cooling when the JET is attached with either side facing outwards but also space cooling when used as an enclosure wall. Thus, the JET can passively mitigate the greenhouse effect in enclosures while offering surface cooling performance comparable to conventional radiative coolers.


Author(s):  
Hassan Qandil ◽  
Weihuan Zhao

A novel non-imaging Fresnel-lens-based solar concentrator-receiver system has been investigated to achieve high-efficiency photon and heat outputs with minimized effect of chromatic aberrations. Two types of non-imaging Fresnel lenses, a spot-flat lens and a dome-shaped lens, are designed through a statistical algorithm incorporated in MATLAB. The algorithm optimizes the lens design via a statistical ray-tracing methodology of the incident light, considering the chromatic aberration of solar spectrum, the lens-receiver spacing and aperture sizes, and the optimum number of prism grooves. An equal-groove-width of the Poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) prisms is adopted in the model. The main target is to maximize ray intensity on the receiver’s aperture, and therefore, achieve the highest possible heat flux and output concentration temperature. The algorithm outputs prism and system geometries of the Fresnel-lens concentrator. The lenses coupled with solar receivers are simulated by COMSOL Multiphysics. It combines both optical and thermal analyses for the lens and receiver to study the optimum lens structure for high solar flux output. The optimized solar concentrator-receiver system can be applied to various devices which require high temperature inputs, such as concentrated photovoltaics (CPV), high-temperature stirling engine, etc.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Prakash Bijarniya ◽  
Jahar Sarkar ◽  
Pralay Maiti

AbstractPassive radiative cooling is an emerging field and needs further development of material. Hence, the computational approach needs to establish for effective metamaterial design before fabrication. The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is a promising numerical strategy to study electromagnetic interaction with the material. Here, we simulate using the FDTD method and report the behavior of various nanoparticles (SiO2, TiO2, Si3N4) and void dispersed polymers for the solar and thermal infrared spectrums. We propose the algorithm to simulate the surface emissive properties of various material nanostructures in both solar and thermal infrared spectrums, followed by cooling performance estimation. It is indeed found out that staggered and randomly distributed nanoparticle reflects efficiently in the solar radiation spectrum, become highly reflective for thin slab and emits efficiently in the atmospheric window (8–13 µm) over the parallel arrangement with slight variation. Higher slab thickness and concentration yield better reflectivity in the solar spectrum. SiO2-nanopores in a polymer, Si3N4 and TiO2 with/without voids in polymer efficiently achieve above 97% reflection in the solar spectrum and exhibits substrate independent radiative cooling properties. SiO2 and polymer combination alone is unable to reflect as desired in the solar spectrum and need a highly reflective substrate like silver.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 559
Author(s):  
Hui Yao ◽  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Qiang Wang ◽  
Jianwei Li ◽  
Yunjin Yu ◽  
...  

Very recently, two new two-dimensional (2D) layered semi-conducting materials MoSi2N4 and WSi2N4 were successfully synthesized in experiments, and a large family of these two 2D materials, namely MA2Z4, was also predicted theoretically (Science, 369, 670 (2020)). Motivated by this exciting family, in this work, we systematically investigate the mechanical, electronic and optical properties of monolayer and bilayer MoSi2P4 and MoSi2As4 by using the first-principles calculation method. Numerical results indicate that both monolayer and bilayer MoSi2Z4 (Z = P, As) present good structural stability, isotropic mechanical parameters, moderate bandgap, favorable carrier mobilities, remarkable optical absorption, superior photon responsivity and external quantum efficiency. Especially, due to the wave-functions of band edges dominated by d orbital of the middle-layer Mo atoms are screened effectively, the bandgap and optical absorption hardly depend on the number of layers, providing an added convenience in the experimental fabrication of few-layer MoSi2Z4-based electronic and optoelectronic devices. We also build a monolayer MoSi2Z4-based 2D optoelectronic device, and quantitatively evaluate the photocurrent as a function of energy and polarization angle of the incident light. Our investigation verifies the excellent performance of a few-layer MoSi2Z4 and expands their potential application in nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices.


Author(s):  
Shuxian Chen ◽  
Junyi Li ◽  
Zicong Guo ◽  
Li Chen ◽  
Kunhua Wen ◽  
...  

Abstract Plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) is theoretically explored with a graphene metamaterial using finite-difference time-domain numerical simulations and coupled-mode-theory theoretical analysis. In this work, the proposed structure is consisted of one rectangular cavity and three strips to generate the PIT phenomenon. The PIT window can be regulated dynamically by adjusting the Fermi level of the graphene. Importantly, the modulation depth of the amplitude can reach 90.4%. The refractive index sensitivity of the PIT window is also investigated, and the simulation result shows that a sensitivity of 1.335 THz/RIU is achieved. Additionally, when the polarization angle of the incident light is changed gradually from 0˚ to 90˚, the performances of the structure are greatly affected. Finally, the proposed structure is particularly enlightening for the design of dynamically tuned terahertz devices.


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