High-Selectivity Planar Thermal Emitter with a Stable Temperature over 1400 K for a Thermophotovoltaic System

A selective thermal emitter with superior thermal stability and perfect selective thermal emission in specific bands can facilitate the lifting of the thermophotovoltaic (TPV) energy conversion efficiency in TPV systems. Scalable planar selective thermal emitters with superior spectral selectivity and robust high-temperature stability are desired to meet the requirements of large-scale deployments of TPV systems. However, stably reradiating the available thermal photons at above 1273 K remains a significant challenge for selective thermal emitters. In this work, we demonstrated a high-selectivity planar thermal emitter based on the composite ceramic of ZrC and Al₂O₃. The prepared selective thermal emitter provides an emissivity of around 90% above the photon energy (0.6 eV) at 1423 K, a strong emission suppression effect below 0.6 eV, and superior thermal stability up to at least 1423 K. Therefore, the overall spectral efficiency can reach around 53%. Coupled with an InGaAs PV cell, the TPV system based on the selective thermal emitter demonstrates a predicted heat-to-electricity power conversion efficiency of 29.78% at 1423 K due to the matched spectral response of the emitter with the PV cell. Our work opens a new way forward for TPV systems based on planar selective thermal emitters.