Plasmonic
metal nanostructures have attracted considerable attention
for solar energy harvesting due to their capability in photothermal
conversion. However, the narrow resonant band of the conventional
plasmonic nanoparticles greatly limits their application as only a
small fraction of the solar energy can be utilized. Herein, a unique
confined seeded growth strategy is developed to synthesize black silver
nanostructures with broadband absorption in the visible and near-infrared
spectrum. Through this novel strategy, assemblages of silver nanoparticles
with widely distributed interparticle distances are generated in rod-shaped
tubular spaces, leading to strong random plasmonic coupling and accordingly
broadband absorption for significantly improved utilization of solar
energy. With excellent efficiency in converting solar energy to heat,
the resulting black Ag nanostructures can be made into thin films
floating at the air/water interface for efficient generation of clean
water steam through localized interfacial heating.
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