Solar steam generation is achieved by localized heating system using various floating photothermal materials. However, the steam generation efficiency is hindered by the difficulty in obtaining a photothermal material with ultrathin structure yet sufficient solar spectrum absorption capability. Herein, for the first time, an ultrathin 2D porous photothermal film based on MoS 2 nanosheets and single-walled nanotube (SWNT) films is prepared. The as-prepared SWNT-MoS 2 film exhibits an absorption of more than 82% over the whole solar spectrum range even with an ultrathin thickness of ≈120 nm. Moreover, the SWNT-MoS 2 film floating on the water surface can generate a sharp temperature gradient due to the localized heat confinement effect. Meanwhile, the ultrathin and porous structure effectively facilitates the fast water vapor escaping, consequently an impressively high evaporation efficiency of 91.5% is achieved. Additionally, the superior mechanical strength of the SWNT-MoS 2 film enables the film to be reused for atleast 20 solar illumination cycles and maintains stable water productivity as well as high salt rejection performance. This rational designed hybrid architecture provides a novel strategy for constructing 2D-based nanomaterials for solar energy harvesting, chemical separation, and related technologies.
Solar water evaporation
is thought to be a promising solution to
address the issues of global water scarcity. However, it is particularly
difficult to achieve an idealized photothermal conversion membrane
with all of the required structure characteristics such as wide spectrum
absorption, ultrathin and porous, low thermal conductivity, and ease
to scale up, thus leading to reduced water evaporation efficiency.
Here, we designed a large-area bilayer Janus film by assembling gold
nanorod (AuNR) onto the interconnected single-walled carbon nanotube
(SWNT) porous film. The combined characteristics of high solar spectrum
absorption, enhanced photothermal performance, thermal insulating
feature, interconnected porous structure, and excellent mechanical
performance enable the bilayer Janus film with a nearly 94% water
evaporation efficiency under 5 kW m–2 solar irradiation
and stable water generation capability during long-term illumination
cycles as a water desalination membrane. Construction of the bilayer
Janus film represents an effective strategy for developing multifunctional
membranes for advanced desalination applications.
We found that surface defects quenched the persistent luminescence in nanophosphors, and surface passivation can improve the persistent luminescence efficiency.
Nature has created complex living systems with outstanding structure and remarkable function. Constructing biomimetic systems that rival living organisms has attracted considerable research interest in research fields of self-assembly and bionic science. Inspired by the composition of photosynthetic bacteria, we have designed artificial photoresponsive protocells through capsulation of upconversion nanoparticles@black phosphorus quantum dots (UCNPs@BPQDs) within aptamer-modified liposome (Apt-Lip) to form UCNPs@BPQDs@Apt-Lip (UBAL). The UBAL protocells with near-infrared-lightharvesting capability actively and efficiently convert light energy into chemical and heat energy. Furthermore, the successful application of the protocells to malignant tumors in vivo exhibited near-infraredlight-mediated targeted combined photodynamic and photothermal synergistic therapy. Our demonstration of operative protocells not only represents a method for fabricating light-harvesting systems based on nanoassembly, but also provides a promising step toward photosynthetic protocells with integrated cell-like structure and light-harvesting function for nanomedicine.
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