Transparent alumina based superhydrophobic self–cleaning coatings for solar cell cover glass applications

Sutha, S.; Suresh, Sisira; Raj, Baldev; Ravi, K.R.

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2017.02.027

Cited by 123 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…SM sample has been designed also to present anti-reflective property, since it is an import requirement for their application as solar cell cover glass [8,15,20]. SM showed a gain in visible-near-infrared range of about 3%, over bare substrate.…”

Section: Anti-soiling Coating Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As superhydrophilicity and hydrophobicity are fundamental to give a self-cleaning property to the glass [9,12,[18][19][20], water contact angles (WCA) measurements of all coatings were performed before and after UV irradiation for 30 min, as seen in Table 3. SM sample has presented hydrophobic property (angle > 90°), as expected as it has been functionalized with hydrophobic compound.…”

Section: Anti-soiling Coating Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These coatings can be promising also for concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) applications whose modules make use of multijunction solar cells, and therefore need transparent anti-soiling coating in a wide wavelength region (typically between 300 and 1800 nm). "Easy to clean" surfaces can be obtained, for example, by hydrophobic functionalized silica, since this film has the property to produce moving spherical water drops which can collect the dust particles and eventually flow off the surface [9,[18][19][20]. In this work, anti-soiling coatings based on TiO 2 , TiO 2 /SiO 2 , and fuctionalized-SiO 2 films have been deposited on glass, characterized regarding their optical and structural properties and then compared in their performance in preventing the soiling deposition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Anti-soiling coatings for solar cell cover glass: Climate and surface properties influence

Jesus

Timò

Agustín-Sáenz³

et al. 2018

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The objective of this study has been twofold: i) to investigate different strategies for CPV module glass surface modification, in particular preparing hydrophilic and hydrophobic coatings in order to reduce the dust accumulation (soiling) on the module surface; ii) to perform a joint comparative soiling testing in Italy, Spain and Brazil in order to understand the limit and advantages of the proposed anti-soiling coatings in different climate condition. Two TiO 2 /SiO 2 films with different titanium content have been synthesized and benchmarked against pure TiO 2 in relation to transparency and hydrophilicity. Moreover, a hydrophobic antireflective material based on functionalized-SiO 2 thin film was also investigated. All these coatings have been deposited over low iron float glass substrates by sol-gel dip-coating and electron-beam evaporation technique. TiO 2 /SiO 2 and functionalized-SiO 2 films showed higher transmittance in visible range than pure TiO 2. TiO 2 /SiO 2 films showed a persistent superhydrophilic character with water contact angles near to 0°, while functionalized-SiO 2 presented hydrophobic property. The joint comparative soiling tests showed the importance of setting anti-soiling strategies in region characterized by more dry climate: in Brazil, which during the soiling test was characterized by a long dry period, the anti-soiling coatings were effective in reducing the soiling deposition and in the removal of the contaminants by rainwater; in Spain and Italy, the more frequent rain precipitation made the soiling effect less relevant, however, the deposition of anti-soiling coating on the module cover glass allowed to fully recover the initial transmittance after rain washing. A chemical and mineral characterization of the soiling has been carried out revealing the dependence of the contaminants from the environment conditions (e.g. car traffic, presence of industries, amount of rain and local minerals in the ground).

show abstract

Section: Anti-soiling Coating Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Anti-soiling Coating Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Anti-soiling coatings for solar cell cover glass: Climate and surface properties influence

Jesus

Timò

Agustín-Sáenz³

et al. 2018

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nanostructured semiconductor thin films have gained increasing interest as self-cleaning surfaces over the last decade [1,2]. This is due to their commercialization prospects [3][4][5] and extensive practical applications such as window glass [3,6], fabrics [6], paints [7], construction materials [8], plastics [9], solar cells [10] and environmental remediation [11]. In principle, the self-cleaning process can employ hydrophilic or hydrophobic surfaces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photocatalytic and Photostability Behavior of Ag- and/or Al-Doped ZnO Films in Methylene Blue and Rhodamine B under UV-C Irradiation

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Silver (Ag) and/or aluminum (Al)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Ag, ZnO:Al) films with different concentrations were produced using sol-gel process and investigated for wettability and photocatalysis. Water contact angle (CA) measurements indicated the films to be hydrophilic with reduced solid/liquid interfacial surface energy upon metal doping. The films were highly transparent (>94%) with red or blue shift in the absorption edge depending on the dopant type (Ag or Al) owing to the Burstein–Moss effect. The ZnO:Ag and ZnO:Al films with 0.5 and 1.0 wt.% metal dopant showed high degradation efficiency in methylene blue (MB) solution under UV irradiation, mainly due to an increase in the photogenerated electron–hole pair recombination time and hydroxyl radicals (·OH) generation. The MB degradation followed pseudo-first-order reaction with maximum apparent reaction rate constant of 2.40 h−1 for the 0.5 wt.% ZnO:Al film. ZnO films with 1.0 wt.% dopant demonstrated excellent photostability and recyclability even after several runs presumably due to reduced Zn2+ dissolution as well as blocking of the active surface area. ZnO:(Ag + Al) film containing 0.5 wt.% Al and Ag showed excellent UV photodegradation of MB and rhodamine blue (RhB) with high levels of photostability over five cycles.

show abstract

“…These coatings improve the cleaning effectiveness of natural cleaning agents because they make the panel surface hydrophilic. In addition, these coatings have anti-static and photo-catalytic effects [25,28,29]. All these properties reduce soiling with the major disadvantage of having a life span of a couple of years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Nano-Composite Coatings the Key for Photovoltaic Panel Self-Maintenance: An Experimental Evaluation

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article shows the influence of an anti-fouling nano-coating on the electrical energy produced by a string of photovoltaic modules. The coating effect was evaluated comparing the energy produced by two strings of the same PV power plant: one of them was cleaned and the other was cleaned and treated with the coating before the monitoring campaign. The PV plant is located in Modena, north of Italy. A first monitoring campaign of nine days after the treatment shows that the treatment increases the energy production on the PV arrays by about 1.82%. Results indicate that the increase is higher during sunny days with respect to cloudy days. A second monitoring campaign of the same length, but five months later, shows that the energy gain decreases from 1.82% to 0.69% due to the aging of the coating, which is guaranteed for one year by the manufacturer. A technical-economical analysis demonstrates that at the moment the yearly economic gain is 0.43 € per square meter of panel and the cost of the treatment is about 1 € per square meter. However, large scale diffusion can reduce the production cost and thus increase the affordability of the coating.

show abstract

Transparent alumina based superhydrophobic self–cleaning coatings for solar cell cover glass applications

Cited by 123 publications

References 27 publications

Anti-soiling coatings for solar cell cover glass: Climate and surface properties influence

Anti-soiling coatings for solar cell cover glass: Climate and surface properties influence

Photocatalytic and Photostability Behavior of Ag- and/or Al-Doped ZnO Films in Methylene Blue and Rhodamine B under UV-C Irradiation

Are Nano-Composite Coatings the Key for Photovoltaic Panel Self-Maintenance: An Experimental Evaluation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About