2024/02/24 by Elisa Sani, Diletta Sciti, Simone Failla +7
Chemistry · Energy · Engineering · #Ceramic #Chemistry #Composite material #Electron #Inorganic chemistry #Lanthanum #Materials science #Nanotechnology #Optoelectronics #Photothermal therapy #Physics #Selectivity #Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Systems #Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods #Thermal #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Thermionic emission #Thermodynamics
paper · doi:10.1016/j.solener.2024.112423
openalex publication_date 2024/02/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) single-crystals are known from a long time for their excellent thermionic and field-assisted electron-emitting properties. Recently, multi-crystalline ceramics, which offer several technological advantages over single-crystals, have been studied as well, proving a low work function and Richardson constant, in addition to favorable optical properties for high-temperature solar radiation absorbers. However, to fully disclose to LaB6 ceramics the novel application of a double-function bulk thermionic emitter, enabled by the direct absorption of solar radiation, and, at the same time, thermodynamic solar absorber for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), their optical properties should be further optimized. The ideal result, consisting in the selective increase of the solar absorptance and decrease of the thermal emittance, thus increasing both the spectral selectivity and the photothermal efficiency of the absorber, has been obtained in this work by realizing Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structures (LIPSS) on the ceramic surface by means of femtosecond-laser treatments. LIPPS formation has been investigated as a function of the accumulated laser fluence.