CNR – Smart and Solar Energy Materials Laboratory (S2EMA Lab)
TA20 – CNR-IMA1
Location
Largo Enrico Fermi, 6
50125 Firenze, Italy
Description
The S2EMA laboratory has over 10 years of experience in charactersing temperature-dependent optical properties of materials, mainly applied to the field of solar energy exploitation, but also for basic science (assessing the spectral complex refractive index/ the spectral optical constants of liquids, for instance).
S2EMA offers to Transnational Access (TA) users its extra-wide spectral range and temperature-dependent materials characterisation facilities (0.18-55 µm wavelength, 90-1200K temperature) with the help of two expert researchers. As an example, it can investigate solar absorber materials for solar thermal technologies (bulk solids, coatings and films, composites, liquids, nanofluids, powders), thermal radiation emitters for thermophotovoltaics, wavelength converters and luminescent solar concentrators for photovoltaics, thermal energy storage materials, etc. It can also assess the optical nonlinear properties of liquids and nanofluids and their optical limiting properties at different wavelengths through a nanosecond-laser setup. Finally, it also measures the optical scattering albedo of colloids, which allows to discriminate the contribution of the optical absorption from that of the optical scattering in the extinction coefficient, thus identifying the genuine absorption properties of the two-phase material.
If you are a user interested in assessing the properties of materials in their interaction with optical radiation, irrespectively from the fact that it is sunlight, thermal radiation, fluorescence radiation or any artificial radiation, please do not hesitate to get in touch to benefit from Transnational Access through RISEnergy.
Testing Capabilities
- Solar absorbers: quantification of solar absorptance and thermal emission losses, estimation of the absorber photothermal efficiency
- Thermal emission in thermal energy storage materials (radiative emission losses)
- Thermal emission in radiators for thermo-photovoltaic (PV) and other applications
- Steady-state emission and excitation spectra of luminescent materials (wavelength converters for PV, luminescent solar concentrators, LED phosphors, other phosphors, laser media)
- Assessment of the electronic energy-level structure in luminescent materials
- Complex refractive index (real & imaginary parts, i.e. optical constants) of liquids
- Nonlinear optical transmittance and Optical Limiting in liquids and colloids
- Optical scattering albedo in colloids
- Colloidal stability and hydrodynamic size in nanofluids.
Technical Equipment
1) Materials reflectance, transmittance and absorbance in a wide spectral range from UV to Far-IR are fully characterised by means of a set of spectrometers and spectrophotometers:
- UV-VIS-NIR double-beam spectrophotometer (0.18-3 μm wavelength) equipped with various accessories, including hemispherical reflectance (integrating sphere), variable-angle specular reflectance, fiber-coupled external integrating sphere for large samples and/or unconventional geometries.
- FT-IR Nicolet Multirange (Mid- & Far-Infrared, accessible wavelength range 1.2-55 μm) spectrometer, equipped with infrared hemispherical reflectance (1.2-17 μm) (mid-infrared integrating sphere).
- For both instruments, transmittance can be measured at different temperatures in the range from 90K (~liquid nitrogen temperature) to 573K (+300°C).
- A backup instrument in Mid-IR is also available (Bio-Rad Excalibur).
2) Homemade furnace for spectral thermal emissivity (from ~570 to ~1200K temperature, ~300°-1000°C), so-called MUSE setup (Measurement System for high temperature Emissivity).
3) Spectrofluorometer with detection range extended into the IR (up to 1550 μm): measurement of emission and excitation spectra at the steady state.
4) Additional excitation source for spectrofluorometric measurements: 1550 nm fiber laser.
5) Nanosecond pulsed laser (1064, 532, 355 nm), 5 mJ max pulse energy for nonlinear optical property characterisation of liquids and nanofluids.
6) Homemade setup for the measurement of optical scattering at discrete wavelengths for liquids and colloids.
7) Dynamic Light Scattering & Zeta potential for colloids characterisation.
8) Variable-temperature sample holders for performing temperature-dependent spectral measurements from liquid Nitrogen temperature to +300°C.
9) Available sample holders for: bulk solids, coatings & films, powders, liquids & colloids.
10) Wide range setup for complex refractive index of liquids (i.e. determination of both refractive index and the absorption coefficient) in the range 0.18-55 µm wavelength.
Investigated properties:
1) Materials reflectance, transmittance, absorbance
2) High-temperature thermal emissivity
3) Steady-state fluorescence and excitation spectra
4) Non-linear optical transmittance
5) Optical scattering in liquids and colloids
6) Nanoparticles hydrodynamic size in colloids by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)
7) Zeta potential for colloidal stability assessment.
Additional information
Technology Readiness Level: 1-3
Special considerations: N/A
Technology clusters: CSP/STE, Energy Storage, Materials for Energy, PV
Website: https://www.ino.cnr.it/?page_id=16599&p=a6
Availability: All year
Provision of tools to prepare data sets in a FAIR way: Yes
