Durable nanoparticle-based material can convert 90% of light into usable heat energy

10/29/2014 - 00:00

A multidisciplinary engineering team at the University of California, San Diego developed a new nanoparticle-based material for concentrating solar power plants designed to absorb and convert to heat more than 90 percent of the sunlight it captures. The new material can also withstand temperatures greater than 700 degrees Celsius and survive many years outdoors in spite of exposure to air and humidity. Their work, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot program, was published recently in two separate articles in the journal Nano Energy.

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Ref: Tae Kyoung Kim, Jaeyun Moon, Bryan VanSaders, Dongwon Chun, Calvin J. Gardner, Jae-Young Jung, Gang Wang, Renkun Chen, Zhaowei Liu, Yu Qiao, Sungho Jin. Si boride-coated Si nanoparticles with improved thermal oxidation resistance. Nano Energy, 2014; 9: 32 DOI:10.1016/j.nanoen.2014.06.021