Enhanced Power Of Solar-Driven Thermoelectric Generator By Nano-and Microscale Structures On Metal

Metals are good conductors of heat, but due to its high reflection of sunlight in the application of thermoelectric devices are quite limited.We fabricate functional nano-and microscale structures by using femtosecond laser on various metal surfaces, so that the thermoelectric devices could have high sunlight absorption properties, effectively extending the application of metal. Furthermore, femtosecond laser plasma filaments micro processing technology because of its long distance, fabrication of functional nano-and microscale structures on non-planar surface has become the hot spot of the research.In this thesis, we do the research of the nano-and microscale structures with wide spectrum absorption function on aluminum metal surface by using strong focus femtosecond laser pulse and the femtosecond laser plasma filaments. We fabricate two typical micro/nano composite structures-microscale groove covered nanostructures and microcolumn covered nanostructures. Through the change of the experimental conditions, we achieve the control of two kinds of different structure characteristics of different size. Further through the construction of the solar simulation test system, we take Al foil with the multi-functional microcolumns structure as solar absorber to study the solar thermoelectric generation efficiency. Through the test results we found that the generated output of manufactured Al foil surface with two different structures can effectively improve solar thermoelectric generator power, multiples3-19times, compared with normal Al foil without micro structure. By means of surface morphology observation, reflectivity measurement, surface temperature observation, we analysis and interpretation the mechanism of enhanced solar thermoelectric generator power.