Scalable High-Efficiency Bi-Facial Solar Evaporator with a Dendritic Copper Oxide Wick

Abstract

Solar thermal distillation is a promising way to harvest clean water due to its sustainability. However, the energy density of solar irradiation inevitably demands scalability of the systems. To realize practical applications, it is highly desirable to fabricate meter-scale solar evaporator panels with high capillary performance as well as optical absorptance using scalable and high-throughput fabrication methods. Here, we demonstrate a truly scalable fabrication process for a bi-facial solar evaporator with copper oxide dendrites via the hydrogen bubble templated electrochemical deposition technique. Furthermore, we construct a theoretical model combining capillarity and evaporative mass transfer, which leads to optimal operation conditions and wick characteristics, including superhydrophilicity, extreme capillary performance, and omni-angular high optical absorptance. The fabricated porous surfaces with excellent capillary performance and productivity provide a pathway toward a highly efficient bi-facial solar evaporator panel with meter-level scalability.

Bifunctional in situ polymerized nanocomposites for convective solar desalination and enhanced photo-thermoelectric power generation

“…These selective interfacial designs reduced the photothermal material consumption and offer tunable evaporation characteristics, e.g., vapor temperature and vapor flux. [26][27][28][29] Fig. S3b (ESI †) presents a schematic illustration of inside the two-phase polyurethane wick section (W-W), where hot brine fluid flows down through chemical convection phenomena (salinity gradient), while water is pumped through capillary action, which builds due to the presence of macropores in the polyurethane foam.…”

Smart Strategies for Light and Thermal Management in High‐Efficiency Solar Steam Generation

“…So far, classic tilted flat plate evaporators, [6,[174][175][176][177][178][179] cone evaporators, [60,68,180] and origami evaporators [94] have been designed to reduce the energy density of the light-receiving surface. We demonstrated a biface evaporator using an ultrablack metalorganic framework (MOF) foam that has a pine needle-like hierarchical structure.…”

Fractal Growth of Quasi Two-Dimensional Copper Dendrites by Template-free Electrodeposition

“…Thus, researching the ion movement in the electrochemical process will provide a theoretical basis for the electrochemical assembly of micro-and nanoscale novel materials, which can realize the application of many functional devices. − An excellent photothermal device often has the characteristics of micro–nano structures, mainly concentrated between 10 nm and 500 μm. − CuO is one of the promising photothermal materials because of its high light absorption and good solar selectivity. It can be prepared by simple in situ oxidation and sintering of copper metal. − The fractal dendrite structure, mimicking the natural trees and ferns, has a micro-/nanoscale hierarchical structure, a larger surface area, and a light cage effect, which may further improve the photothermal performance. − …”