The Open Surface Science Journal

2011, 3 : 131-135
Published online 2011 December 14. DOI: 10.2174/1876531901103010131
Publisher ID: TOSURSJ-3-131

Coatings of Fe3O4 Nanoparticles as Selective Solar Absorber

Federico González , Enrique Barrera-Calva , Lázaro Huerta and Rajaram S. Mane
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, Av. San Rafael Atlixco No. 186 Col. Vicentina, 09340 México D.F., Mexico.

ABSTRACT

Cost-effective and pollution-free green chemical method has been employed for synthesizing Fe3O4 nanoparticles which can be used as a solar absorbent and characterized further for their structural, optical and morphological properties using X-ray diffraction and UV-VIS-IR spectrophotometry and transmission electron microscopy techniques, respectively. Presence of Fe2+ and Fe3+ in nanoparticles is confirmed from the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. The nanometric grain-size allows deposition of thin films, and the resulting coatings onto copper substrate show a relatively low thermal emittance in a range of 0.05-0.10. The solar absorptance values are between 0.76 and 0.85, which can provide an acceptable selectivity. Attempt is also made to find influence of the thickness effect on the selectivity having 15.2 as best value for one layer coating.

Keywords:

Nanometric Fe3O4, black coatings, solar absorber.