ARTICLE IN PRESS

Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 93 (2009) 14041410

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Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solmat

Spectral selectivity of composite enamel coatings on 321 stainless steel

Harlan J. Brown-Shaklee, William Carty, Doreen D. Edwards 
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering, Alfred University, 2 Pine Street, Alfred, NY 14802, USA

a r t i c l e in f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 29 September 2008
Received in revised form
23 February 2009
Accepted 7 March 2009
Available online 21 April 2009

Composite porcelain-enamel coatings consisting of spinel-type transition-metal-oxide pigments

embedded in a borosilicate-glass matrix were deposited on 321 stainless steel using screen-printing
techniques and characterized using total reectance over the spectral range of 200 nm to 25 mm. The
composite coatings exhibited moderate spectral selectivity and excellent thermal stability at 450 1C.
Solar absorptance (a) ranged from 0.82 to 0.90 and calculated thermal emittance at 500 1C (e) ranged
from 0.46 to 0.79. Both depended on coating thickness and pigment volume concentrations. As an
example, the highest solar selectivity was measured in a 0.9 mm coating with a and e (500 1C) being 0.82
and 0.46, respectively.
& 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Spectrally selective coatings
Solar absorptance
Thermal emittance
Solar collectors
Enamel coatings
Solar absorber

1. Introduction
Many solar-power applications require spectrally selective
coatings that exhibit high solar absorptance and low thermal
emittance. Because few materials exhibit intrinsic solar selectivity, most solar-selective coatings are composite, layered, graded,
or textured structures. Most commercial trough-type concentrated solar-power systems use composite and/or graded coatings
prepared using vacuum physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques [1,2].
In the quest for more affordable solar-energy components,
researchers have sought to develop solar-selective coatings
deposited using inexpensive coating methods. As an example,
researchers at the National Institute of Chemistry in Slovenia have
reported extensively on the properties of thickness-sensitive
spectrally selective (TSSS) paints containing various pigments in
phenoxy and silicon binders. They have shown that optical
properties are governed by the intrinsic optical properties of the
components, by coating thickness, and by particle-size-dependent
scattering [315].
In addition to exhibiting solar-selective optical properties,
coatings must meet performance requirements such as mechanical durability and thermo-chemical stability at operating temperatures that can approach 500 1C for concentrated solar-power
receiver tubes. Resin-based systems have not found widespread

 Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 607 871 2284; fax: +1 607 871 3407.

E-mail address: dedwards@alfred.edu (D.D. Edwards).

0927-0248/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2009.03.009

use in concentrated solar-power systems because of thermal

degradation at high temperature and long-term instability on
exposure to ultraviolet radiation [14]. The oxidation of some solarselective coatings resulting from air leaks into the evacuated
annulus between the coated steel tube and its protective glass
sleeve is a signicant problem for the long-term operation of
trough-type solar-receiver tubes in the eld [2].
Porcelain-enamel coatings have been examined as solar
absorbing coatings but do not exhibit solar selectivity unless
coated with a low-emissivity coating like doped tin oxide [16,17].
Nevertheless, if porcelain-enamel coatings could be formulated to
exhibit solar selectivity, they may be an attractive alternative to
existing coating technology, especially for high-temperature and
moderately corrosive environments. The coatings are prepared by
depositing glass powder or frit on a steel substrate using
processes that are readily adaptable to large-scale manufacturing,
such as wet-spray, electrostatic spray, or screen-printing techniques. After deposition, the coated sample is heated to soften and
sinter the glass particles to form a dense protective coating.
Porcelain-enamel frits are generally complex silicate glass
systems formulated to adhere to a specic type of metal. The
optical properties of traditional porcelain enamels are typically
controlled by the use of the dissolved transition-metal ions,
particularly in the case of dark-colored enamels, or by the
crystallization of secondary phases. In this paper, we report on
the processing and optical properties of composite porcelainenamel coatings consisting of spinel-type oxide pigments embedded in a clear porcelain-enamel matrix and compare the
results to commercial black porcelain-enamel coatings.

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2. Experimental
Two different types of porcelain-enamel coatings were applied
to 1.5 mm thick 321 stainless-steel coupons (5 cm  5 cm) using
screen printing, as summarized in Table 1. The rst is a
commercial black enamel (PL-214, Ferro Corp., Cleveland, OH).
The second was a composite coating consisting of a black spineltype pigment embedded in a clear enamel (XG-201, Ferro Corp.,
Cleveland, OH). Two different pigments were used in the study
(10456 and F6331-2, Ferro Corp., Cleveland, OH).
The properties of frits and pigments are summarized in Tables
2 and 3. Density, specic surface area (SSA), and particle size were
measured using a helium pycnometer (Micrometrics, AccuPyc
1330, Norcross, GA), BET surface area analyzer (Micrometrics,
Gemini 236, Norcross, GA), and particle size analyzer (Micrometrics, Sedigragh 5100, Norcross, GA), respectively. The glass
transition temperature (Tg) of the frit was determined using
differential thermal analysis (DTA; TA Instruments, SDT 2960,
New Castle, DE) and hot-stage microscopy (Expert Systems,
M31600/80/2, Italy). Phase analysis was determined by X-ray
diffraction (XRD), and chemical composition was determined via
chemical assay performed by ACME Analytical Laboratories Ltd.

Table 1
Summary of fritpigment combinations studieda.
Coating

Glass frit

Pigment

Commercial black enamel

Composite enamel-1
Composite enamel-2

PL-214
XG-201
XG-201

10456
F6331-2

All products are manufactured by Ferro, Corp.

Table 2
Chemical and physical properties of glass frits.
Characteristic

Black enamel

Clear enamel

Product name
Manufacture
Description
Density (g/cm3)
Surface area (m2/g)
Sieved particle size (mm)
Mean particle size (mm)
Refractive index
Reectivity coefcient
Glass transition temperature (1C)

PL-214
Ferro, Corp.
Alkali borosilicate
2.64
0.37
o53

1.572
0.222
489

XG-201
Ferro, Corp.
Barium borosilicate
3.57
0.55
o53
13
1.616
0.235
680

Table 3
Chemical and physical properties of pigments.
Characteristic

Pigment 1

Pigment 2

Product name
Manufacture
Description
Density (g/cm3)
Surface area (m2/g)
Equivalent mean spherical diametera (mm)
Reported mean particle size (mm)

10456
Ferro, Corp.
Spinel-type oxide
5.56
3.0
0.36
2.2

F6331-2
Ferro, Corp.
Spinel-type oxide
5.68
38.1
0.03
o10

Calculated from surface area measurement.

1405

The refractive index of the frit was measured using the Becke line
method; the frit was immersed in oils of known refractive indices
and imaged using an optical microscope with a 40  objective
lens (Leica, Laboralux 2, Germany).
Screen-printing inks were prepared by suspending frits and
pigments in a screen-printing vehicle. The vehicle was prepared
by dissolving 3.5 g ethyl cellulose (EthocelTM, Dows Chemical
Company, Midland, MI) in 96.5 g a-terpineol (Laboratory Grade,
Fisher Scientic, Hampton, NH) and heating to 90 1C under
constant stirring. Prior to preparing the inks, the frits were sieved
to remove particles X53 mm. The pigments were used as received.
Weighed portions of the pigment and frit were blended with the
screen-printing vehicle to produce inks with different solid
loadings (350 vol%) and different pigment volume concentrations (060 vol%). All inks were passed through a three-roll mill
(Exakt, 120S/303, Okalahoma City, OK) three times to disperse
pigment particles and immediately printed to prevent sedimentation.
Coatings were printed on 200  200 coupons of 321 stainless steel
using a screen printer (Engineering Technical Products, L-555)
equipped with a 350 mesh screen (RIV Incorporated, Merrimack,
NH) having a 4.8 cm  4.8 cm print pattern and a black neoprene
squeegee (6070 Durometer). Printed samples were dried at 60 1C
for 24 h and red in a dental furnace (Whip Mixs Corp., Firelite,
Louisville, KY) in air or in vacuum. A ramp rate of 50 K/min to peak
temperature was followed by a 10 min soak at peak temperature
and a 20 K/min ramp down to room temperature.
Sample cross-sections were mounted in glass-lled thermosetting epoxy, polished, and imaged for lm thickness, pigment
dispersion, and surface contour using scanning electron microscopy (SEM; FEI, Quanta 200F, Hillsboro, OR). The surface
roughness of the samples was examined using an optical
interferometer (ZYGO, NV5000 5200, Middleeld, CT).
Grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (Siemens D-500) was
employed to detect pigment decomposition and pigment dissolution in post-red samples. Grazing-incidence XRD scans between
101 and 701 2y were completed with Cu-Ka radiation. In situ hightemperature XRD was conducted on a 3:1 mixture of Ferro XG201 frit and Ferro F6331-2 pigment with Co-Ka radiation. In situ
XRD scans (10701 2y) were completed from 10 to 810 1C at 100 1C
steps and from 810 to 910 1C at 10 1C steps using a ramp of 50 K/
min (Siemens thetatheta diffractometer with custom furnace).
Scans were taken during cooling to determine if the starting
spinel phase reformed.
Solar absorptance and thermal emittance were determined
from total reectance measurements. For the range 2002500 nm,
diffuse reectance (81-normal) was measured using a UVvisNIR
spectrometer (Perkin Elmer, Lambda 900, Wellesley, MA) calibrated with NIST-traceable Spectralon diffuse reectance standards. For the range 250025,000 nm (4000400 cm1), an FT-IR
spectrometer (Thermo, FT-IR Nexus 6700, Waltham, MA)
equipped with a gold-coated integrating sphere with a mercurycadmium-telluride (MCT) detector (Pike Tech., IntegratIR, 0481040, Madison, WI) was used. At 2500 nm, there was sometimes a
mismatch between the data collected using the two different
spectrometers. The mismatch was typically less than 5% of
full scale, and the absorptivity measured using the FT-IR spectrometer was typically lower than that measured using the
UVvisNIR spectrometer. The FT-IR spectra were corrected by
shifting them to match the UVvisNIR spectra at 2500 nm. Solar
absorptance was calculated using a weighted integration over
the 121 selected point solar spectrum using global standard
radiation [18]. Emissivity was extracted from the spectra assuming Kirchoffs Law. Thermal emittance was determined using a
weighted integration over the Planck distribution for a specic
temperature.

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3. Results

100

Fig. 1 shows the thickness of black-enamel coatings (Ferro PL214) printed on sandblasted stainless steel using six different inks
with solid loadings ranging from 5 to 50 vol%. All coatings were
red at 750 1C and exhibited good adhesion to the substrate. For
inks with solid loadings less than 30 vol%, thickness increased
with increasing solid loading. For solid loading greater than 30%,
the thickness remained at 25 mm and was governed by the
properties of the screen (emulsion thickness and screen mesh).
The thinnest coatings followed the contour of the substrate and
had a measured surface roughness on the order of the coating
thickness, ca. 12 mm. The 25 mm thick coatings were smoother
with surface roughness of 0.25 mm rms.
Fig. 2 shows the absorption spectra for the commercial blackenamel coatings. The absorptivity of the coatings is above 75%
over the entire spectral range measured, leading to poor solar
selectivity shown in Table 4. Common in all spectra is a strong
absorption peak at 8 mm, which can be attributed to resonance
absorption of SiO bonds in the silicate glass. Note that
absorptivity values exceed 100% at this peak due to the way in
which the FT-IR data were corrected to match with the
UVvisNIR data at 2500 nm, as discussed in the Experimental
Section.
3.2. Composite porcelain-enamel coatings
Composite porcelain-enamel coatings were prepared using a
clear glass frit (XG-201, Ferro Corp.) combined with three different
pigments, all of which are transition-metal-oxide spinels. Initial
studies were conducted with the 10456 pigment (Ferro Corp.) and
provided information about the appropriate processing conditions
for the XG-201 matrix. Because the particle size of the 10456
pigment prevented the deposition of very thin coatings, experiments aimed at understanding the effect of coating thickness
were conducted with the F6331-2 pigment (Ferro Corp.)
Fig. 3 shows the effect of ring temperature on the absorption
spectra of composite enamel coatings prepared with 10456
pigment and XG-201 glass frit. All coatings were printed with
an ink containing 30 vol% solids (Table 5) and 30 vol% pigment

%A

3.1. Commercial black porcelain-enamel coatings

80
A
B

A) 10 vol. %
B) 20 vol. %
C) 30 vol. %
D) 40 vol. %

60
1000
Wavelength (nm)

10000

Fig. 2. Absorption spectra of PL-214 commercial black enamel printed using inks
with different solid loadings.

Table 4
Thickness and optical properties of PL-214 commercial black enamel coatings.
Solid loading (vol%)

Thickness (mm)

e at 500 1C

a/e

5
10
20
30
40
50

1.25
3.25
12.5
23.1
24.6

0.809
0.863
0.850
0.915
0.918

0.621
0.877
0.923
0.940
0.875

0.92
0.94
0.90
1.05

100
A-G

90
80
70

25

%A

60

50

Enamel Thickness (m)

40
30

20

20
10

15

A) 600 C
B) 650 C
C) 700 C
D) 750 C
E) 800 C
F) 850 C
G) 900 C

0
1000
Wavelength (nm)

10

Fig. 3. Absorption spectra of composite coating prepared with XG-201 frit and
10456 pigment and processed at different temperatures. Both solid loading and
pigment volume concentration are 30%.

0
0

10

20
30
40
Ink Solids Loading (vol. %)

50

Fig. 1. Coating thickness of PL-214 commercial black-enamel coatings a as a

function of solid loading.

volume concentration, i.e. 70% liquid vehicle, 21% glass frit, and 9%
10456 pigment. Below 800 nm, the coatings exhibit high (485%)
and nearly constant absorption. Above 800 nm, absorption
decreases with increasing wavelength. For samples red below
700 1C, there was a signicant decrease in absorption at higher

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Table 5
Thickness and optical properties of composite coatings.
Solid loading (vol%)

PVC (vol%)

Thickness (mm)

e at 500 1C

a/e

30
3
5
7
10
20
30
5
5
5
5
5
5
5

0
18
18
18
18
18
18
5
10
15
20
25
30
60

22.3
0.9
3.2
6.3
5.3
12.6
21.3
2.3

0.859
0.824
0.867
0.871
0.899
0.899
0.902
0.830
0.851
0.899
0.888
0.904
0.90
0.89

0.774
0.463
0.553
0.570
0.707
0.757
0.790
0.529
0.629
0.627
0.596
0.635
0.641
0.755

1.11
1.78
1.57
1.53
1.27
1.19
1.14
1.57
1.35
1.43
1.49
1.42
1.40
1.18

1407

wavelengths, suggesting some spectra selectivity, but the coatings

exhibited poor adhesion to the substrate because the ring
temperature was too low to soften the frit particles. As shown
in Fig. 4, the microstructure of the underred coatings is very nonuniform, consisting of relatively large particles of unsoftened glass
interspersed with regions containing the spinel pigment embedded in a glass matrix presumably formed by softening the
smaller glass particles. Additional experiments, not reported in
detail here, indicated that ring temperatures 4850 1C were
required to ensure a good bond to the steel substrate.
Fig. 5 shows in situ high-temperature XRD patterns of the XG201 frit mixed with the pigment in a 3:1 ratio with the F6331
pigment. Data were collected at room temperature, at 100 1C
increments between 110 and 810 1C, at 10 1C increments between
810 and 910 1C, and then during cooling. The room temperature
pattern shows peaks consistent with the spinel-type structure of

Pigment
Substrate

Frit
b

Fig. 4. SEM micrograph of underred coating prepared with XG-201frit and 10456 pigment.

25 C

cooling

910 C
860 C
810 C

25 C
10

20

30

40
Two-Theta (deg)

50

60

70

Fig. 5. High-temperature X-ray diffraction patterns of a sample consisting of a 3:1 ratio of XG-201 frit and F6331-2 pigment.

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the pigment. When the temperature exceeded 860 1C, the spinel
began to decompose, forming various oxides of copper, iron, and
manganese. When the sample was cooled, the spinel did not
reform, indicating that heating above 860 1C would irreversibly
destroy the pigment. Thus, 850 1C was chosen as the processing
temperature for all coatings.
Table 5 summarizes the thickness and optical properties of
composite coatings made with F6331-2 pigment and XG-201 frit.
Figs. 6 and 7 show the thickness and absorption spectra of
coatings prepared with 18% PVC processed at 800 1C. Coating
thickness increases linearly with solid content, producing a
20 mm coating from inks with a solid content of 30 vol%. All
of the coatings are spectrally selective and exhibit a region of
relatively high constant absorption at low wavelengths followed
by a region in which absorption generally decreases with
increasing wavelength. All of the coatings also show a strong
absorption band at around 8 mm, which is attributed to the
resonance absorption of the SiO bond in the glass frit. The

25

Enamel Thickness (m)

20

15

10

0
0

10
15
20
25
Ink Solids Loading (vol. %)

30

Fig. 6. Thickness of coatings prepared with XG-201 frit and F6331-2 (PVC 18%)
as a function of solid loading.

100

90

wavelength at which transition between the two regions occurs

depends on coating thickness, i.e. the coatings are thicknesssensitive spectrally selective. For the thinnest coatings, this
transition occurs at 500 nm. For the thickest coatings
(20 mm), this transition occurs at 1 mm.
For the coatings prepared with 18% PVC, the solar absorptance
increased with increasing thickness, ranging from 0.82 to 0.90 as
shown in Table 4. The thermal emissivity (500 1C) also increased
with increasing thickness, ranging from 0.46 to 0.79. The
selectivity of the coatings ranged from 1.14 for the thickest
coating to 1.78 for the thinnest.
Fig. 7 also illustrates the effect of substrate preparation on the
optical properties of the coatings. Both sandblasted and asreceived steel substrates were coated using 10 vol% solids and 18%
PVC. The coating on the sandblasted substrate had higher
absorption above 1 mm, and thus higher thermal emittance.
A series of coatings was prepared on as-received substrates
with constant solid loadings (5 vol%) and a range of pigment
volume concentration. Fig. 8 is a representative scanning electron
micrograph of the coatings, which were 23 mm thick. As can be
seen in the micrograph, coating thickness is relatively uniform.
The large crack in the coating is thought to be an artifact of sample
preparation as no cracks were observed on the surface of the asprepared samples. The pigment particles (5% PVC for this sample)
are not homogenously distributed throughout the coating but
appear to reside near the substrate, which likely is a consequence
of particle segregation during printing and drying.
Fig. 9 shows the absorption spectra of the coatings prepared
with 5 vol% solids, and the corresponding optical properties are
summarized in the lower half of Table 5. The spectra are similar to
those shown in Fig. 7 in that they exhibit a region of relatively
high constant absorption at low wavelengths followed by a region
in which absorption generally decreases with increasing wavelength. The transition between the two regions depends on
pigment concentration. For samples with 510% PVC, the transition occurs at 400500 nm. For samples with 1530% PVC, the
transition occurs around 9001000 nm. The samples with 60%
PVC show the transition around 2000 nm. With the exception of
the coating prepared with 60% PVC, the optical properties of
coatings prepared with 5 vol% solids showed very little variation
with pigment volume concentration. Excluding the sample
prepared with 60% PVC, the solar absorptance of the coatings

A
B

80
70

%A

60
50
A) 30 vol. %

40
30
20

B) 20 vol. %
C) 10 vol. % on Untreated Steel
D) 10 vol. % on Sandblasted Steel
C

E) 7 vol. %

F) 5 vol. %

10

G) 3 vol. %

0
1000

10000

Wavelength (nm)
Fig. 7. Absorption spectra of composite coating prepared with XG-201 frit and
F6331-2 pigment and different solid loadings. The pigment volume concentration
of all coatings is 18%.

Fig. 8. SEM micrograph of enamel coating prepared with XG-201 frit and F6331-2
pigment. The coating was prepared with 5 vol% solids and 18% PVC.

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1409

1
100

B D

C
G

0.9

E,F

90

Solar Conversion Efficiency,

0.8

%A

80
70
A) PVC=5%

60

B) PVC=10%
C) PVC=15%

50

D) PVC=20%
E) PVC=25%
F) PVC=30%

40

G) PVC=60%

1000
Wavelength (nm)

10000

was 0.86774% and the thermal emittance at 500 1C was

0.585710%. The highest selectivity, 1.57, was measured in the
coating prepared with the lowest PVC.
To test the stability of the composite coatings, a coated sample
was heated at 450 1C in air for over 1200 h. The spectra of the
sample before and after heating were essentially identical,
indicating no notable degradation under expected operating
conditions. Glancing angle XRD of the coating after heating
showed no evidence of decomposition of the spinel-type pigment.

4. Evaluation of composite porcelain-enamel coatings for solarpower applications

The solar-thermal conversion efciency of a simple solar
concentrator system is given as
xas S  t sT 4
t sT 4
as 
xS
xS

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
321 Stainless Steel
PL-214 Black Enamel
XG-201/F6331-2 Composite
Hypothetical coating (/ = 0.95/0.05)

0.2

Fig. 9. Absorption spectra of composite coating prepared with XG-201 frit and
F6331-2 pigment and with 5 vol% solid loading.

0.7

(1)

where Z is the solar conversion efciency, x the solar concentration factor, S the total solar-energy ux (960 W m2), as the solar
absorptance, et the thermal emittance, s the StefanBoltzmann
constant (5.6696  108 W m2 K4), and T the absolute temperature [1]. Fig. 10 compares the efciency of the two types of
coatings examined in this study to that of the bare 321 stainlesssteel substrates at 500 1C. Also shown in the plot is the efciency
of a hypothetical coating with solar absorption and thermal
emittance values comparable to those reported for state-of-theart solar-selective coatings, i.e. a 0.95 and e 0.05.
The efciency of the composite XG-201/F6331-2 coating
developed in this study, which are moderately solar selective, is
substantially lower than that of state-of-the-art vacuum-deposited coatings. Nevertheless, the composite enamel coating is
clearly more efcient than the commercial black-enamel coating.
For concentration factors of 30, the composite XG-201/F6331-2
coating is predicted to be twice as efcient (40% vs. 20%) as the
commercial black porcelain-enamel coatings (PL-214). For higher
concentration factors, the improvement is less dramatic.
The composite coatings investigated in this study are similar to
the thickness-sensitive solar-selective paints reported by Orel and
co-workers [316] in that they consist of black pigment particles

0.1
0

20

40
60
Concentration Factor, x

80

100

Fig. 10. Solar conversion efciency of the two enamel coatings compared to asreceived 321 stainless steel and a hypothetical solar-selective coating with a and e
being 0.95 and 0.05, respectively.

imbedded in a matrix. In this case of our composite coatings, the

matrix is a glass whereas the paints have an organic or silicone
matrix. The performance of paint coatings is dependent on
pigment volume concentration, coating thickness, particle dispersion, substrate selection, and application technique. As a point of
comparison, some of the best performing paint coatings on
aluminum substrates have a solar absorptance X0.9 and a
thermal emittance of 0.2.
Similar to the TSSS paint coatings, the performance of the
composite porcelain-enamel coatings was found to depend on
pigment volume concentration and thickness. Similarly, we
anticipate that improved performance may be possible with
improvements in particle distribution and dispersion as well as
with alternative deposition methods.
One of the factors that is expected to limit the ultimate
selectivity of the composite coatings is the strong multi-phonon
absorption band around 8 mm. Unfortunately, the elimination of
this absorption band it not feasible for porcelain-enamel coating
as most, if not all, porcelain enamels are based on borosilicate
glasses.

5. Conclusions
Composite porcelain-enamel coatings consisting of spinel-type
transition-metal-oxide pigments embedded in a borosilicate-glass
matrix were deposited on 321 stainless-steel substrates. Coatings
with different thicknesses and different pigment volume concentrations were prepared, characterized, and compared with the
commercial black porcelain-enamel coatings. The composite
porcelain-enamel coatings exhibited moderate solar selectivity
and excellent thermal stability. While it may be possible to
improve the solar selectivity of the composite coatings with
improved processing, the performance of the coatings will be
limited, in part, by a strong absorption band associated with SiO
bonds at 8 mm.

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Acknowledgements
Although the research described in this article has been funded
wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection
Agency through Grant/Cooperative Agreement X83254101-0 to
Alfred University, it has not been subjected to the Agencys
required peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reect the views of the agency and no ofcial endorsement
should be inferred.
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