Sputtered solar absorber coatings with high spectral selectivity and good durability

Sputtering is a well established coating technology for glass panes. This technology is also interesting for the production of selective solar absorber coatings because the environmental impact is much less than for electroplating. There are already several sputtered absorber coatings for evacuated tubular collectors existing on the market. The application in ventilated collectors requires better durability of the absorbers and a technology which can be applied to planar substrates. The coatings presented here are produced by dc-magnetron sputtering. The maximum sample size was 2 m multiplied by 3 m. A thermal emittance (at 373 K) below 5% was achieved together with a solar absorptance (AM 1.5) above 90%. The coating is deposited directly onto copper sheets without the commonly used anti-corrosion nickel coating in between. The durability of the absorbers was found to be sufficient for the application in ventilated flat-plate collectors containing moisture according to the tests and requirements proposed by Task X of the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme of the International Energy Agency.