Integrated Evaporator for Efficient Solar-Driven Interfacial Steam Generation

Abstract

Solar-driven interfacial steam generation is a promising technique for clean water production because it can minimize thermal loss by localizing solar-to-heat conversion at the air/liquid interface. Here we report an integrated solar evaporator by partially growing 2D polypyrrole microsheets within a melamine foam through chemical vapor polymerization. These microsheets can induce multiple light reflections within the foam, enable omnidirectional light absorption, provide abundant surfaces to promote heat transfer, and achieve spatially defined hydrophobicity to facilitate vapor escape. Meanwhile, the inherent hydrophilicity of the bottom part of the foam promotes spontaneous upward water transport and suppresses heat loss. The composite foam exhibits an excellent apparent evaporation rate of ∼2 kg/(m 2 •h) and solar-to-vapor efficiency of ∼91%. The combined advantages of large surface area, high efficiency, low cost, all-weather application, excellent durability, and scalable manufacturing make our integrated design promising for fabricating large-scale solar steam generation systems that are suitable for practical clean water production.

Concentrated Acid‐Induced Dehydration of Fallen Leaves for Efficient, Sustainable, and Self‐Cleaning Solar Steam Generation

“…Solar steam generation (SSG) is considered to be one of the most promising technologies to obtain clean water from various nonpotable water resources. [1][2][3][4][5][6] The development and design of photothermal conversion materials, which can absorb solar irradiation and convert it into heat, is one of the focuses in this field. [7][8][9] To date, various types of light absorbers, such as metallic nanoparticles, [10][11][12][13] carbonbased materials, [14][15][16] polymers, [17][18][19] and semiconductors [20][21][22] have been demonstrated for efficient solar absorption.…”

Plasmonic Nanostructures for Photothermal Conversion

“…With the continuous process optimization and improvement of energy conversion efficiency, solar energy is increasingly regarded as an alternative source to replace fossil fuels for electricity generation. [ 30,31 ] The key challenge of solar‐thermal conversion by plasmonic nanomaterials is to broaden the absorption band to cover the whole solar spectrum. The absorption wavelength and intensity of plasmon excitations strongly depend on not only their intrinsic material properties, including composition, size, and shape, but also their assembly configuration.…”

Multifunctional photothermal materials based on natural pumices for high efficiency solar‐driven interface evaporator

“…At present, the multifunctional photothermal materials requires the following aspects: high efficiency of photothermal conversion, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] excellent salt resistance, [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] bactericidal and bacteriostatic effect, [16][17][18][19][20] anti-pollution capacity, [21][22][23][24][25][26] multi-effect utilization of energy, [27][28][29] and so on. In recent years, a lot of photothermal materials for solar-driven interface evaporator (SDIE) have been developed.…”

“…It is widely reported that the evaporation efficiency of photothermal materials is more than 90%, with evaporation rate over 1.3 kg m À2 h À1 . [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] While focusing on efficient solar photothermal conversion, the influence of salt deposition during solar evaporation has also aroused a heated discussion. A variety of salt-rejection mechanisms have been put forward, and the methods to prevent the salt blockage of photothermal materials are becoming mature and perfect.…”