Development and Testing of Abrasion Resistant Hard Coats For Polymer Film Reflectors [electronic resource] : Preprint

Published: Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy, 2010.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Physical Description: 11 pages : digital, PDF file
Additional Creators: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (U.S.), United States. Department of Energy, and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information

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Summary

Reflective polymer film technology can significantly reduce the cost of solar reflectors and installed Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants by both reduced material cost and lower weight. One challenge of polymer reflectors in the CSP environment pertains to contact cleaning methods typically used with glass mirrors. Such contact cleaning methods can scratch the surface of polymer reflectors and thereby reduce specular reflectance. ReflecTech, Inc. (a subsidiary of SkyFuel, Inc.) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) initiated a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to devise and develop an abrasion resistant coating (ARC) suitable for deposition onto polymer based mirror film. A number of candidate ARC products were identified as candidate formulations. Industrial collaborators prepared samples having their ARCs deposited onto ReflecTech Mirror Film pre-laminated to aluminum sheet substrates. Samples were provided for evaluation and subjected to baseline (unweathered) and accelerated exposure conditions and subsequently characterized for abrasion resistance and adhesion. An advanced ARC product has been identified that exhibits outstanding initial abrasion resistance and adhesion to ReflecTech Mirror Film. These properties were also retained after exposure to the various accelerated stress conditions. This material has been successfully manufactured as a 1.5 m wide roll-to-roll construction in a production environment.

Report Numbers

E 1.99:nrel/cp-5500-49273
nrel/cp-5500-49273

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Published through SciTech Connect.
10/01/2010.
"nrel/cp-5500-49273"
Presented at SolarPACES 2010, 21-24 September 2010, Perpignan, France.
Jorgensen, G.; Gee, R.; DiGrazia, M.

Funding Information

AC36-08GO28308

View MARC record | catkey: 14445915