Herein, highly efficient, low‐cost, and lightweight solar steam generation systems are fabricated using engineered carbon and silica‐based porous nanostructures with 3D networks as light absorber and heat insulator, respectively. In this regard, systems with three different designs are considered to localize the heat efficiently through harvesting more photons and reducing heat losses. The fabricated systems are multilayered structures including polymeric foam and felt as the substrate and water‐carrier medium, respectively. Highly porous nanostructured particles of carbon aerogel (CA) as an absorber, silica aerogel (SiA) as a superinsulator, and multicore@shell aerogel of CA and SiA (CA core−SiA shell) as both absorber and insulator are synthesized. The used architectures are double layered (substrate covered by CA), triple layered (substrate covered by a layer of CA and a layer of SiA), and multicore@shell (substrate covered by CA−SiA multicore@shell aerogel). Using the double‐layered system, an efficiency of 83% corresponding to 1.2 kg m−2 h−1 water evaporation rate is achieved, which is enhanced to 90% in the triple‐layered system, where the SiA superinsulator is added. Remarkably, when the multicore@shell absorber−insulator is used, the efficiency increments of 27% and 16% are achieved compared with the double‐layered and triple‐layered ones with the same amount of absorber, respectively.
Perovskite (PSK) materials have received extensive attention because of their potential use as the active layer of different applications, including capacitors, sensors and detectors, memories, catalysts, fuel cells, and optoelectronic devices (solar cell and light‐emitting diode). Herein, the past, current, and future status of these applications are focused on. The state of each application is investigated using diverse technology indicators. It reveals that among all the applications, the optoelectronic application is the youngest one and has not yet reached the technology growth stage though it possesses most of the recently published patents. Using a technology investment potential evaluation method, the most potent area for investment is explored, indicating that detectors and sensors are the ones with the biggest investment potentials. Remarkably, PSK solar cell dedicates more than 70% of the patents to itself with the highest predicted efficiency of 30% that will be achieved in 2023 according to the curve fitting method and in 2030 according to the S‐curve method. As a perspective, currently, the highest efficiency and stability are achieved for small‐sized PSK solar cells, it is expected that they would be commercialized in electronic equipment applications first, and after overcoming the challenges, large‐scale modules would enter the markets.
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