FURI | Fall 2018

Experimental Study of Solar Thermophotovoltaic Energy Conversion Enhanced with Selective Metafilm Coatings

A solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) system requires three key components to directly convert solar energy to electricity: a solar absorber, a hot emitter, and a thermophotovoltaic cell. Recently, Profesor Wang’s research group has developed a highly-efficient selective metafilm coating to harvest solar energy to heat which demonstrated high temperature thermal stability. The research has involved experimenting with the metafilm’s ability to act as an absorber. This was done by investigating STPV energy conversion with selective metafilm coatings by measuring the efficiency of a metafilm-enhanced STPV system with electrical, thermal and optical measurements. The goal is to enhance STPV efficiency beyond 10%.