FABRICATION OF A MEMS-BASED SOLAR THERMAL COLLECTOR FOR ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY

A micro solar thermal collector has been fabricated by chemical electrodeposition technique. The coating is made of black nickel-tin selective absorber deposited on a copper substrate. The fabrication technique is presented. The electrodeposition was performed using processes that are less hazardous than many common approaches at a near-neutral pH. The procedure was also performed at room temperature. The environmentally friendly plating procedure makes it a potential replacement for black chromium. The final coating has a dendrite crystal structure of about 100 nm in diameter. The use of this selective coating significantly improved the ability of the fabricated solar collector to convert incident radiation to thermal energy. The performance of the collector plate in a simulated solar environment was examined. An increase in the stagnation temperature of the collector of 10 C was observed when the selective coating was applied to the base collector plate.