Bio-inspired Colorful Selective Solar Absorber

Solar energy is widespread and easily accessible which make it the most promising renewable energy to solve energy crisis. As the ubiquitous distribution of selective solar absorbers employed in architecture and street, their substantially contributions to mitigate environment pollution and facilitate daily energy consumption are important; however, its implementation has been largely limited to poor color display and unideal cost-efficiency. Here, a bio-inspired selective solar absorber (Bio-SSA) has been developed for use as an aesthetically compatible photothermal convector. The Bio-SSA is designed based on a SiO2/W/SiO2/Cu resonant absorption cavity and a two-dimensional photonic crystal (PC). It exhibits solar absorption and infrared (IR) emissivity of 81.1% and 0.17, respectively, while displaying seven different colors in a single unit. The calculated theoretically saving of year-round electricity energy up to maximum 1598 KWh when implemented in high altitude regions in China. Such Bio-SSA enjoys low-cost and simple configuration can further been utilized in large-scale and path a new way for architecture integratable solar energy system.