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Flexible Broadband Absorber for Solar Energy Harvesting

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Abstract

In this work, a multi-material flexible solar absorber composed of regularly arranged Ni cross resonators and Ti nano-cylinders on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate with great flexibility and mechanical properties is proposed. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is utilized to investigate absorption properties of the flexible absorber, including its efficiency in solar energy harvesting. In addition, the underlying mechanisms of the ultra-high absorption properties of the flexible absorber are revealed by employing the electric field distributions and current flow vectors. The results indicate that the proposed flexible absorber exhibits ultra-high absorptance within the spectral band ranging from 400 to 2400 nm with an overall solar energy harvesting efficiency higher than 99%, demonstrating that almost all solar energy will be captured by the proposed flexible absorber. In addition, the ultra-high absorption properties in solar spectrum can be attributed to the plasmon resonances and magnetic polaritons arising from the synergistic effect between nano-crosses and nano-cylinders made of different materials. However, the absorption properties of the flexible absorbers are greatly affected by their geometric parameters and incident angle of the light. Most significantly, the proposed absorbers maintain high absorptance while subjected to large bending and twisting deformations, which enables them easily adapt to the working environment submerged in water because of its flexibility. The present study introduces a novel design strategy for flexible perfect solar absorbers with multi-material nanostructures and a PDMS substrate, promising potential photothermal applications for solar energy, such as solar evaporator for wastewater treatment and desalination under large fluctuations.

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Data Availability

Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China through grant no. 52006056 and the Experiments for Space Exploration Program and the Qian Xuesen Laboratory, China Academy of Space Technology (grant no. TKTSPY-2020–01-04).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Research Center of Low-Carbon Technology and Equipment, College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Zhaolong Wang & Yinbao Wei

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Heat Fluid Flow Technology and Energy Application, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, China

    Zhaolong Wang

  3. Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China, Academy of Space Technology (CAST) , Beijing, 100094, China

    Ce Zhang

Authors
  1. Zhaolong Wang
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  2. Yinbao Wei
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  3. Ce Zhang
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Contributions

Zhaolong Wang: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, validation, Writing — review and editing, funding acquisition. Yinbao Wei: software, data curation, writing — original draft. Ce Zhang: data curation, investigation.

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Correspondence to Zhaolong Wang or Ce Zhang.

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Wang, Z., Wei, Y. & Zhang, C. Flexible Broadband Absorber for Solar Energy Harvesting. Plasmonics 19, 215–225 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-023-01936-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-023-01936-4

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