Solar Collector Absorbers in High-Performance Polymeric Materials
Abstract
The aim was to find and explore a material belonging to the class of high-temperature performance polymers, which is robust to sustain temperatures in a glazed solar collector during stagnation. The chosen material is a polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) - based blend from Chevron Phillips Chemicals adapted to the particular requirements related to the application as a solar collector absorber. If the solar collector is designed for a maximum stagnation temperature of the absorber of approximately 160 qC, the material will sustain this temperature for nearly 2000 hours. This thermal dose corresponds to approximately 20 years service life of a collector in south of Europe. Other factors than temperature can influence the material properties. The temperature variations during real operation can also cause effects different from those that are revealed in the present experiments. Still it is fair to conclude that the results indicate PPS as a promising candidate as an absorber material. 1. A polymeric solar collector Polymeric materials offer new opportunities as solar collector material related to processing, shaping, transport and installation. Presently the polymer materials are introduced in collector insulation and framing, but it is evident that substituting the conventional materials like glass in the transparent cover, or metals in the absorbers, represent more severe obstacles. One exception is the uncovered swimming pool collectors, where plastics already have a dominant market share