Journal Home Online First Current Issue Archive For Authors Journal Information 中文版

Frontiers in Energy >> 2020, Volume 14, Issue 4 doi: 10.1007/s11708-020-0694-z

A spectrally selective surface structure for combined photothermic conversion and radiative sky cooling

. Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.. Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China; Institute of Sustainable Energy Technology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

Accepted: 2020-09-08 Available online: 2020-09-08

Next Previous

Abstract

The sun and outer space are the ultimate heat and cold sources for the earth, respectively. They have significant potential for renewable energy harvesting. In this paper, a spectrally selective surface structure that has a planar polydimethylsiloxane layer covering a solar absorber is conceptually proposed and optically designed for the combination of photothermic conversion (PT) and nighttime radiative sky cooling (RC). An optical simulation is conducted whose result shows that the designed surface structure (i.e., PT-RC surface structure) has a strong solar absorption coefficient of 0.92 and simultaneously emits as a mid-infrared spectral-selective emitter with an average emissivity of 0.84 within the atmospheric window. A thermal analysis prediction reveals that the designed PT-RC surface structure can be heated to 79.1°C higher than the ambient temperature in the daytime and passively cooled below the ambient temperature of approximately 10°C in the nighttime, indicating that the designed PT-RC surface structure has the potential for integrated PT conversion and nighttime RC utilization.

Related Research