Sandwich Photothermal Membrane with Confined Hierarchical Carbon Cells Enabling High‐Efficiency Solar Steam Generation
- 6 May 2020
- Vol. 16 (23), e2000573
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202000573
Abstract
Solar‐driven vaporization is a sustainable solution to water and energy scarcity. However, most of the present evaporators are still suffering from inefficient utilization of converted thermal energy. Herein, a universal sandwich membrane strategy is demonstrated by confining the hierarchical porous carbon cells in two energy barriers to obtain a high‐efficiency evaporator with a rapid water evaporation rate of 1.87 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun illumination, which is among the highest performance for carbon‐based and wood‐based evaporators. The significantly enhanced evaporation rate is mainly attributed to the inherently optimized porous evaporation mode derived from the hierarchical hollow structures of pollen carbon cells, and the synergistically regulated water transporting and thermal management performance of the sandwich membrane. Moreover, the constructed sandwich membrane also exhibits excellent self‐regenerating performance in simulated seawater and high salinity water. The developed device can maintain an average evaporation rate of 4.3 L m−2 day−1 in a 25 day consecutive outdoor test.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (51902074, 51762012)
- Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (519QN182)
This publication has 46 references indexed in Scilit:
- Tailoring Graphene Oxide‐Based Aerogels for Efficient Solar Steam Generation under One SunAdvanced Materials, 2016
- Graphene oxide-based efficient and scalable solar desalination under one sun with a confined 2D water pathProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016
- High‐Performance Photothermal Conversion of Narrow‐Bandgap Ti2O3 NanoparticlesAdvanced Materials, 2016
- Bilayered Biofoam for Highly Efficient Solar Steam GenerationAdvanced Materials, 2016
- Nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon of extraordinary capacitance for electrochemical energy storageScience, 2015
- Multifunctional Porous Graphene for High‐Efficiency Steam Generation by Heat LocalizationAdvanced Materials, 2015
- Photothermal Response in Dual-Gated Bilayer GraphenePhysical Review Letters, 2013
- Search for an -Dibaryon with a Mass near in and DecaysPhysical Review Letters, 2013
- Co-gelation synthesis of porous graphitic carbons with high surface area and their applicationsCarbon, 2011
- A black body absorber from vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009