3D‐Printed, All‐in‐One Evaporator for High‐Efficiency Solar Steam Generation under 1 Sun Illumination

Abstract

Using solar energy to generate steam is a clean and sustainable approach to addressing the issue of water shortage. The current challenge for solar steam generation is to develop easy-to-manufacture and scalable methods which can convert solar irradiation into exploitable thermal energy with high efficiency. Although various material and structure designs have been reported, high efficiency in solar steam generation usually can be achieved only at concentrated solar illumination. For the first time, 3D printing to construct an all-in-one evaporator with a concave structure for high-efficiency solar steam generation under 1 sun illumination is used. The solar-steam-generation device has a high porosity (97.3%) and efficient broadband solar absorption (>97%). The 3D-printed porous evaporator with intrinsic low thermal conductivity enables heat localization and effectively alleviates thermal dissipation to the bulk water. As a result, the 3D-printed evaporator has a high solar steam efficiency of 85.6% under 1 sun illumination (1 kW m ), which is among the best compared with other reported evaporators. The all-in-one structure design using the advanced 3D printing fabrication technique offers a new approach to solar energy harvesting for high-efficiency steam generation.

Harnessing Solar‐Driven Photothermal Effect toward the Water–Energy Nexus

“…[76][77][78] Apart from the above-mentioned advantages of CNTs as photothermal agent, the optical property and surface property (i.e., hydrophilicity and surface charge) of graphene are able to be elegantly tuned through regulating its oxidation degree (e.g., GO: graphene oxide or rGO: reduced graphene oxide). [83] Besides, a beam of laser could be also utilized to process the GO aerogel into highly vertically ordered pillar array of graphene-assembled frameworks, and this unique structure is very useful for photothermal water evaporation. [79] Thanks to the fast progress of micro-nano fabrication techniques, graphene-based derivatives can be easily processed into various bulk materials (i.e., 2D film [80,81] and 3D aerogel [62,63,82] ) as photothermal convertors.…”

Novel Receiver-Enhanced Solar Vapor Generation: Review and Perspectives

“…Recently, Li et al, utilized the fastest growing technology of additive manufacturing (3D printing) to construct an all-in-one evaporator with a concave structure for solar steam generation [105]. The integrated structure consists of the carbon nanotubes/graphene oxide as broadband solar absorber and graphene oxide/nano-fibrillated cellulose porous layer for liquid propagation, as shown in Figure 11a (c) Curves of dynamic evaporation rate of pure water and the 3D-CG/GN at different time points [105].…”

“…The integrated structure consists of the carbon nanotubes/graphene oxide as broadband solar absorber and graphene oxide/nano-fibrillated cellulose porous layer for liquid propagation, as shown in Figure 11a (c) Curves of dynamic evaporation rate of pure water and the 3D-CG/GN at different time points [105]. Reprinted from [105].…”

“…The hydroxyl and carboxyl groups of modified graphene oxide sheets react with the isocyanate groups to form stable chemical bonds, which help in fabrication of stable organic-inorganic nanocomposite foam. This type of (c) Curves of dynamic evaporation rate of pure water and the 3D-CG/GN at different time points [105]. Reprinted from [105].…”

“…This type of (c) Curves of dynamic evaporation rate of pure water and the 3D-CG/GN at different time points [105]. Reprinted from [105]. Copyright (2017) WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.…”