Ultra-high-temperature ceramics (UHTCs) are optimal structural materials for applications that require extreme high temperature resilience (Mp > 3000 °C), resistance to chemically aggressive environments, wear, and mechanical stress. Processing UHTCs with laser-based additive manufacturing (AM) has not been fully realized due a variety of obstacles. In this work, selective laser reaction sinter...

It is well known that the efficiency of thermodynamic solar plants increases with the working temperature. At present the main limit in temperature upscaling is the absorber capability to withstand high temperatures. The ideal solar absorber works at high temperatures, has a low thermal emissivity and a high absorptivity in the solar spectral range . The paper reports on the high temperature em...

In this work, Ni50Al50 alloy is taken into consideration as potential brazing material for joining ZrB2 ultra-high temperature ceramic. The results of experimental study on high interfacial phenomena between molten binary and polycrystalline ZrB2, are shown. A sessile drop method combined with a capillary purification procedure was applied to investigate the wetting behavior Ni50Al50/ZrB2 coupl...

The present work reports on the comparative characterization of optical properties of hafnium and zirconium-based ultra-refractory ceramics at room and high temperature, in view of their possible use in novel solar receivers for thermal solar plants operating at higher temperatures. We show how porosity and surface finishing affect both the spectral reflectance and the high-temperature emittanc...