Carbon-based absorbers for solar evaporation: Steam generation and beyond

Yang, Tieshan; Lin, Han; Lin, Keng‐Te; Jia, Baohua

doi:10.1016/j.susmat.2020.e00182

Cited by 53 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…To achieve this, the development of high-performance photothermal materials (PTMs) for efficient light-to-heat conversion and rational design of the structure of photothermal evaporator to optimize energy management during solar steam generation are prerequisite [16]. For ISSG, applied PTMs can be classified into four main categories including carbon-based materials [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], metallic plasmonic materials [28][29][30][31][32][33], polymers [34][35][36], and semiconductors [37][38][39]. Among the semiconductors, metal oxides and chalcogenides such as Cu x S y , Cu 12 Sb 4 S 13 , Fe 3 O 4 , CuO, MoO 3−x , and TiO x , have the advantages of lowtoxicity, relative mild synthetic conditions, and high light absorption [37,[39][40][41][42][43][44].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A cobalt oxide@polydopamine-reduced graphene oxide-based 3D photothermal evaporator for highly efficient solar steam generation

Gao

Owens

et al. 2020

Tungsten

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Improving the evaporation rate and energy efficiency of solar steam generation is very important to facilitate real-world applications for clean water production. In this work, Co 3 O 4 @polydopamine (PDA) nanoparticles were synthesized and combined with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) to fabricate a new Co 3 O 4 @PDA-rGO photothermal aerogel. The obtained photothermal aerogel sheet was thereafter used to prepare both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) photothermal evaporators for solar steam generation. Due to the excellent light absorption and hydrophilicity of the photothermal aerogel, a high evaporation rate of 1.60 kg•m −2 •h −1 was achieved for the 2D photothermal evaporator. While for the 3D evaporator, the evaporation rate was dramatically increased to 3.71 kg•m −2 •h −1 with a corresponding light-to-vapor energy efficiency of 107%. This was attributed to an increased evaporation surface area, decreased energy loss from the top evaporation surface to the environment, and energy gain from the environment on the side evaporation surface. The 3D evaporator also showed excellent practical performance in seawater desalination thus demonstrating great potential for real-world applications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A cobalt oxide@polydopamine-reduced graphene oxide-based 3D photothermal evaporator for highly efficient solar steam generation

Gao

Owens

et al. 2020

Tungsten

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“…[ 3–16 ] The two most effective strategies to achieve a high evaporation rate and energy efficiency involve preparation of high performance photothermal materials (PTMs) [ 17–21 ] and rational design of the configuration/structure of the photothermal evaporator. [ 22–30 ] So far, many kinds of PTMs, such as carbon‐based materials, [ 31–45 ] metallic plasmonic materials, [ 46–51 ] polymers, [ 52–56 ] and semiconductors, [ 57–60 ] have all been successfully used to improve the solar light absorption and light‐to‐heat conversion during solar steam generation. Among these materials, carbon‐based materials such as graphene displayed unique advantages such as abundance, excellent thermal and chemical stability, and high solar absorbance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Hollow and Compressible 3D Photothermal Evaporator for Highly Efficient Solar Steam Generation without Energy Loss

et al. 2021

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Solar steam generation offers a sustainable strategy to mitigate global clean water scarcity. To this end, 3D photothermal evaporators have attracted increasing research interest since they can significantly improve both evaporation rate and energy efficiency. However, compared to the 2D evaporators, the 3D ones consume more raw materials and occupy more storage space, which limits their applications for practical portable solar steam generation. To address this issue, a 3D hollow and compressible photothermal evaporator is designed and fabricated which can be compressed to less than one third of its original volume, thus enabling easier transport and storage. Moreover, under 1.0 sun illumination, all evaporation surfaces of this 3D evaporator are lower in temperatures than the surrounding environment, thus providing the unique advantage of zero energy loss to the environment during solar evaporation. Due to the all‐cold evaporation surfaces, during solar evaporation, the evaporator is able to harvest massive energy from both the surrounding air and bulk water, delivering an extremely high evaporation rate of up to 7.6 kg m−2 h−1 under 1.0 sun irradiation. Furthermore, seawater desalination tests demonstrate that the device has great potential for portable solar thermal desalination by delivering clean water with a salinity well below 50 ppb.

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“…Thus, CNT-based water treatment systems can potentially aid in desalination and pollutant-removal projects, owning also to the self-cleaning function and low energy consumption of CNT membranes [ 25 ]. Especially for solar desalination applications, in which the energy for the separation of fresh water from seawater is provided directly by the sun in the form of thermal energy, it has been shown that the interactions between seawater and the filter membrane’s microstructures controls the process’ performance [ 26 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Understanding of Water Properties inside Carbon Nanotubes

Chatzichristos

Hassan

2022

Nanomaterials

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Confined water inside carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, amassing as a result a very large number of dedicated studies, both theoretical and experimental. This exceptional scientific interest can be understood in terms of the exotic properties of nanoconfined water, as well as the vast array of possible applications of CNTs in a wide range of fields stretching from geology to medicine and biology. This review presents an overreaching narrative of the properties of water in CNTs, based mostly on results from systematic nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and molecular dynamics (MD) studies, which together allow the untangling and explanation of many seemingly contradictory results present in the literature. Further, we identify still-debatable issues and open problems, as well as avenues for future studies, both theoretical and experimental.

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Carbon-based absorbers for solar evaporation: Steam generation and beyond

Cited by 53 publications

References 131 publications

A cobalt oxide@polydopamine-reduced graphene oxide-based 3D photothermal evaporator for highly efficient solar steam generation

A cobalt oxide@polydopamine-reduced graphene oxide-based 3D photothermal evaporator for highly efficient solar steam generation

A Hollow and Compressible 3D Photothermal Evaporator for Highly Efficient Solar Steam Generation without Energy Loss

Current Understanding of Water Properties inside Carbon Nanotubes

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