Lesson plan

Selective surface

In solar thermal collectors, a selective surface or selective absorber is a means of increasing its operation temperature and/or efficiency. The selectivity is defined as the ratio of solar radiation absorption (α sol ) to thermal infrared radiation emission (ε therm ). Selective surfaces take advantage of the differing wavelengths of incident solar radiation and the emissive radiation from the absorbing surface: * Solar radiation covers approximately the wavelengths 350 nm to 4000 nm; UV-A, visible and near infrared (NIR, or IR-A plus IR-B). * Thermal infrared radiation, from materials with temperatures approximately in the interval -40 to 100 °C, covers approximately the wavelengths 4000 nm to 40,000 nm = 4 um to 40 um; The thermal infrared radiation interval being named or covered by: MIR, LWIR or IR-C.

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Article summary

In solar thermal collectors, a selective surface or selective absorber is a means of increasing its operation temperature and/or efficiency. The selectivity is defined as the ratio of solar radiation absorption (α sol ) to thermal infrared radiation emission (ε therm ). Selective surfaces take advantage of the differing wavelengths of incident solar radiation and the emissive radiation from the absorbing surface: * Solar radiation covers approximately the wavelengths 350 nm to 4000 nm; UV-A, visible and near infrared (NIR, or IR-A plus IR-B). * Thermal infrared radiation, from materials with temperatures approximately in the interval -40 to 100 °C, covers approximately the wavelengths 4000 nm to 40,000 nm = 4 um to 40 um; The thermal infrared radiation interval being named or covered by: MIR, LWIR or IR-C.

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