Design of high-temperature solar-selective coatings based on aluminium titanium oxynitrides AlyTi1-y(OxN1-x). Part 2: Experimental validation and durability tests at high temperature

Abstract The durability of two solar-selective aluminium titanium oxynitride multilayer coatings was studied under conditions simulating realistic operation of central receiver power plants. The coatings were deposited by cathodic vacuum arc applying an optimized design concept for complete solar-selective coating (SSC) stacks. Compositional, structural and optical characterization of initial and final stacks was performed by scanning electron microscopy, elastic recoil detection, UV–Vis–NIR-IR spectrophotometry and X-Ray diffraction. The design concept of the solar selective coatings was validated by an excellent agreement between simulated and initial experimental stacking order, composition and optical properties. Both SSC stacks were stable in single stage tests of 12 h at 650 °C. At 800 °C, they underwent a structural transformation by full oxidation and they lost their solar selectivity. During cyclic durability tests, multilayer 1, comprised of TiN, Al .64 Ti .36 N and an Al 1.37 Ti .54 O top layer, fulfilled the performance criterion (PC) ≤ 5% for 300 symmetric, 3 h long cycles at 600 °C in air. Multilayer 2, which was constituted of four Al y Ti 1-y (O x N 1-x ) layers, met the performance criterion for 250 cycles (750 h), but was more sensitive to these harsh conditions. With regard to the degradation mechanisms, the coarser microstructure of multilayer 1 is more resistant against oxidation than multilayer 2 with its graded oxygen content. These results confirm that the designed SSCs based on Al y Ti 1-y (O x N 1-x ) materials withstand breakdown at 600 °C in air. Therefore, they can be an exciting candidate material for concentrated solar power applications at high temperature.