SELECTIVELY SOLAR-ABSORBING SURFACE COATINGS: OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND DEGRADATION

ABSTRACT The most critical part of an energy-efficient solar collector is the absorber surface, which should be spectrally selective and exhibit high solar absorptance and low thermal emittance. This chapter introduces different design principles for achieving spectral selectivity, reports radiative properties for several available solar absorber surfaces, discusses theoretical modelling, and reviews recent work aimed at understanding their degradation at elevated temperature.