A bioinspired 3D solar evaporator with balanced water supply and evaporation for highly efficient photothermal steam generation

Abstract

Interfacial solar steam generation (ISSG) is a promising and energy-effective strategy for freshwater generation. However, the balance between demand and supply of water at the surface of photothermal materials is...

A waterbomb origami tower for convertible photothermal evaporation

“…[23][24][25][26][27][28] A signicant breakthrough is contributed by enlarged evaporation surfaces, 29,30 additional energy harvesting from the surrounding air, [31][32][33] utilization of convective airow, 34 and the recycling of latent heat released from water vapor condensation. 14 The common geometric congurations of 3D photothermal evaporators, which are either articially shaped or retain the original gures of the carbonized biomass materials, have been demonstrated in the form of a cylindrical cup, 35,36 coil, 37 cone, 38 umbrella, 39 cylinder, 40,41 ower, 42 block, 43 sphere, 44,45 etc., which have resulted in a signicant improvement in the evaporation performance. 46,47 However, 3D spatial modeling of evaporators tends to occupy more storage space, inicting additional costs on long-distance transportation and long-term storage.…”

All-Day Freshwater Harvesting by Selective Solar Absorption and Radiative Cooling

“…The shortage of freshwater is a growing problem; a large part of the world’s population is experiencing water stress and still about two-thirds of the global population live under conditions of severe water scarcity for at least 1 month of a year. − The need for freshwater is very urgent, thus many methods have been tried to obtain potable water from various natural resources . Traditional freshwater-harvesting methods require additional energy, such as electricity and fossil energy, which are inevitably diminishing, but solar-thermal-based freshwater harvesting is environment-friendly and nonelectric. − As a consequence, seawater desalination powered by solar rather than electricity is a current direction of development. − …”

“…A higher evaporation rate can be achieved by designing the hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions in the evaporation surface . The structure of using the upper hydrophobic layer and the bottom hydrophilic layer not only facilitates steam escape and reduces heat loss but also provides a solution to the salt crystallization problem. , Other 3D evaporation surfaces such as the synthetic tree and lotus leaf-like 3D CFC-Cone were also designed to enhance the solar interfacial evaporation rate by increasing the evaporation areas.…”

Efficient Solar‐Powered Interfacial Evaporation, Water Remediation, and Waste Conversion Based on a Tumbler‐Inspired, All‐Cellulose, and Monolithic Design

“…[ 21–23,49,50 ] This was achieved by introducing a certain area of CES between the solar evaporation surface and the bulk water, which not only minimizes the conductive heat loss from the solar evaporation surface, but also maximizes the utilization of ambient energy and photothermal energy. [ 51,52 ] However, the CES steam generators display poorer self‐floating stability as compared with the traditional evaporators due to the slender structure and high aspect ratio. Accordingly, such steam generators are usually floated with the aid of sponge‐like substrates (polystyrene, polyurethane foam) during the solar‐driven interfacial evaporation and fail to resist the continuous wave slamming in open water, which restricts its real‐world applications.…”

“…[1] With the population growth, climatic and photothermal energy. [51,52] However, the CES steam generators display poorer self-floating stability as compared with the traditional evaporators due to the slender structure and high aspect ratio. Accordingly, such steam generators are usually floated with the aid of sponge-like substrates (polystyrene, polyurethane foam) during the solar-driven interfacial evaporation and fail to resist the continuous wave slamming in open water, which restricts its real-world applications.…”