Author(s)

Charles Opiyo Ayieko^1*, Robinson Juma Musembi¹, Alex Awuor Ogacho¹, Benard Odhiambo Aduda¹, Boniface Mutua Muthoka¹, Pushpendra K. Jain²

¹Department of Physics, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
²Department of Physics, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana.

Aluminum sheets were polished to reduce ruggedness and then textured in varying acid-ethanol concentration etchant to form pores. The textured surface was characterized structurally by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) which revealed aluminum crystallographic planes (1 1 1), (2 0 0), (2 2 0) and (3 1 1). Its morphology was studied by using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) that confirmed purity of aluminum sheet to be 99.66% at. Reflectance of textured and plain aluminum sheet was analyzed by spectrophotometric measurements which showed that texturing reduced the reflectance of the polished surface by 26% in the UV-VIS-NIR spectrum of solar radiation. With reduced reflectance of the textured aluminum sheet, it was applicable for solar radiation absorption.

Aluminum, Texturing, Reflectance, Solar Energy, Electro-Polishing

Ayieko, C. , Musembi, R. , Ogacho, A. , Aduda, B. , Muthoka, B. and Jain, P. (2015) Controlled Texturing of Aluminum Sheet for Solar Energy Applications. Advances in Materials Physics and Chemistry, 5, 458-466. doi: 10.4236/ampc.2015.511046.