Effect of Composition on Designed Tandem Absorber to Achieve Selective Properties for High Temperature Solar Thermal Applications

We have designed a tandem absorber comprising of five layers namely:TiAlC / TiAlCN / TiAlSiCN / TiAlSiCO / TiAlSiO on stainless steel substrate by DC unbalanced magnetron sputtering system.Tandem absorber shows a high absorptance of 0.961 with an emittance of 0.15 by careful optimization of flow rates and thicknesses of the individual layers. Further, the detailed effects of reactive gas flow rates and thicknesses of each individual layers on the optical properties were studied. Growth rate and thicknesses of each individual layers of the tandem absorber were studied by cross-section FESEM images. The tandem absorber shows long term thermal stability when annealed in vacuum at 600°C for more than 750 h under cyclic heating conditions, indicating suitability of the tandem absorber for solar thermal high temperature applications

Measurement of high temperature emissivity and photothermal conversion efficiency of TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO spectrally selective coating

International audienc

Measurement of high temperature emissivity and photothermal conversion efficiency of TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO spectrally selective coating.

A spectrally selective TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO coating was deposited on stainless steel substrate by unbalanced magnetron sputtering system. Each individual layer of the tandem absorber was optimized by varying the reactive gas flow rates (C2H2, N2 and O2) and target power densities (Ti, Al and Si). The optimized tandem absorber shows a solar absorptance of 0.960 and an emittance of 0.15 at 82 °C, measured using solar spectrum reflectometer and emissometer, respectively. In order to study the optical properties of the deposited tandem absorber at high operating temperatures the reflectance spectra of the tandem absorber were measured at temperatures ranging from 80 °C to 500 °C by UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer and FTIR spectrometers. The reflectance spectra of the as-deposited sample and after high temperature reflectance measurements did not show any significant changes. The thermal emittance of the tandem absorber at high temperatures (80–500 °C) was studied in detail. At the temperature of 200 °C, 300 °C, 400 °C and 500 °C the tandem absorber shows the emittance of 0.152–0.157, 0.181–0.19, 0.214–0.246 and 0.251–0.275, respectively with an absorptance of ~0.930. These results show the good selectivity of the tandem absorber even at high operating temperatures (e.g., 500 °C) with a photothermal conversion efficiency of 88%, thus demonstrating that the tandem absorber is suitable for solar thermal power generation applications. Reflectance and roughness data of the absorber coating post annealing in air up to 600 °C for 2 h, carried out independently, corroborated the present results

Optimization of process parameters to achieve spectrally selective TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO high temperature solar absorber coating

TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO tandem absorber was deposited on stainless steel substrate by using four cathode reactive direct current unbalanced magnetron sputtering system. The reactive gas flow rates (C2H2, N2 and O2) and thicknesses of each individual layers were varied to obtain the selective properties of the tandem absorber. The detailed effects of reactive gas flow rates and thicknesses of the individual layers on the optical properties were studied by using UV–vis–NIR spectrophotometer. Guiding factor in optimizing various process parameters was to achieve low reflectance in the solar spectrum region and high reflectance in the infrared region. The change in growth rate of the tandem absorber with reactive gas flow rate was studied using the thickness data, target voltage and target current. These results indicate a decrease in the growth rate of each individual layer of the tandem absorber with an increase in the flow rates of the reactive gases. The changes in bonding structure and chemical composition with reactive gas flow rates were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The optimized tandem absorber deposited on stainless steel substrate shows absorptance of 0.960 and emittance of 0.15. The thicknesses of the optimized individual layers were ∼62, 18, 20, 16, 27 nm, respectively

Design and fabrication of spectrally selective TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO tandem absorber for higherature solar thermal power applications

A new nanostructured TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO tandem absorber has been designed for high-temperature solar thermal power applications. The first three layers in this tandem act as an absorbing layer, whereas, TiAlSiCO and TiAlSiO act as semi-transparent and anti-reflecting layers. The tandem absorber was deposited on stainless steel substrates using a four-cathode reactive direct current unbalanced magnetron sputtering system. The composition and thicknesses of the individual component layers have been optimized by adjusting the reactive flow rate of C2H2, N2, O2, and also Al, Ti and Si target power densities to achieve high absorptance (0.961) and low emittance (0.07 at 82 °C). The reflectance data showed that the absorptance increases gradually with shift of reflectance minimum to higher wavelengths from first layer to last layer (i.e., TiAlC to TiAlSiO). The thickness of optimized tandem absorber was calculated from the cross-sectional field-emission scanning electron microscopy images and confirmed using transmission electron microscopy. The performance evaluation of the tandem absorber has been evaluated by heating it in air and vacuum under cycling conditions at different temperatures. These results showed that the tandem absorber was stable up to 325 °C in air for 400 h and up to 650 °C in vacuum for 100 h, thus demonstrating its suitability for high-temperature solar thermal power generation applications

Optical properties of TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO tandem absorber coatings by phase-modulated spectroscopic ellipsometry

International audienc

Community Policies and Programs to Prevent Obesity and Child Adiposity

IntroductionEvidence regarding impact of community policies and programs (CPPs) to prevent child obesity is limited, and which combinations of strategies and components are most important is not understood. The Healthy Communities Study was an observational study to assess relationships of characteristics and intensity of CPPs with adiposity, diet, and physical activity in children, taking advantage of variation across the U.S. in community actions to prevent child obesity. The study examined the association of CPPs to prevent child obesity with measured BMI and waist circumference, hypothesizing that communities with more-comprehensive CPPs would have children with lower adiposity.MethodsThe study included 130 communities selected by probability-based sampling or because of known CPPs targeting child obesity. Data were collected at home visits on 5,138 children during 2013-2015. CPPs were scored for multiple attributes to create a CPP intensity score. A CPP target behavior score reflected the number of distinct target behaviors addressed. Scores were standardized with the smallest observed score across communities being 0 and the largest 1. Multilevel regression analysis in 2016 adjusted for community, household, and individual characteristics.ResultsHigher CPP target behavior score was significantly associated with lower BMI and waist circumference in a dose-response relationship, with magnitude for the past 3 years of CPPs of 0.843 (p=0.013) for BMI and 1.783 cm (p=0.020) for waist circumference.ConclusionsThis study provides plausible evidence that comprehensive CPPs targeting a greater number of distinct physical activity and nutrition behaviors were associated with lower child adiposity