Re: Darkening aluminium with nano coatings

From: Henry Spencer (henry_at_spsystems.net)
Date: 01/30/05 

Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 23:00:42 GMT

In article <1107115844.379571.256870@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
Alex Terrell <alexterrell@yahoo.com> wrote:
>http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6802
>it seems these are "printed" on an aluminium foil substrate.
>It would improve the performance of the solar panel if it can be kept
>cooler, and one way would be to darken the aluminium foil on the rear
>side of the panel...

Note carefully that although the cell material is initially deposited on
aluminum, it's later transferred to plastic and the aluminum is removed.
For space applications, this is good for several reasons, notably the
fact that plastic is likely to be lighter. 

-- 
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer
                                -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net