High performance of carbon-particle/bulk-wood bi-layer system for solar steam generation

Abstract

Summary To relieve the fresh water shortage, bi‐layer systems have been widely applied to give high efficiencies of solar steam generation. In current work, a bi‐layer system (C‐wood) is obtained with the low‐cost carbon particles as the light absorbing layer and the boxwood as the supporting layer. The application of wood could lead to both good water transportation and good local heat management in the system, and carbon particles could supply a high light absorptivity at a broad optical absorption wave bands (mostly larger than 98%), which results from the complex three‐dimensional porous structure formed by the wide‐size‐distribution carbon particles. Because simultaneously possessing a high light absorptivity, good water transportation, and good local heat management, the C‐wood system gives a 65% evaporation efficiency under an illumination power of 1 sun. This system is also durable for a future industry applications. Comparing the energy loss of the C‐wood system in the evaporation process with the ones of other systems prepared in this work, we conclude that a low top‐surface reflection of light of the C‐wood system should be responsible for the high evaporation efficiency. It demonstrates that the carbon particle is a promising material for an application in solar steam generation systems for easily accessible resources, low cost, and effective light absorptivity.

Solar vapor generation optimization of a carbon‐black/wood‐flour system with strength enhanced by polystyrene

“…[23][24][25][26] Because of the low cost, natural mesoporous and sturdy structure, wood as the bottom layer has attracted much research interest recently. [27][28][29][30][31] Many bi-layer solar steam generation systems have already been built with woods as the bottom layer, such as the flame-treated wood, 32 plasmonic wood, 33 wood-graphene oxide composite, 34 carbon-wood, 35 and polydopamine-coated wood. 36 Recently, taking the advantage of the surfacecarbonized longitudinal wood, Liu et al have achieved a high evaporation efficiency of about 89% under a 10-sun irradiation.…”

Wood‐Derived Carbon Materials and Light‐Emitting Materials

“…CW‐SSGDs typically have two layers, a photothermal layer and a wood matrix. [ 159–163 ] Current CW‐SSGDs can be divided into two types: those with surficial carbonization and those with complete carbonization. First, CW‐SSGDs based on surficially carbonized wood are introduced.…”

Carbonized loofah andMOF‐801 of synergistic effect for efficient solar steam generation

“…However, a large amount of non‐renewable matter is used in the preparation of these materials. In order to reduce the dependence on non‐renewable energy in the process of solar‐driven steam generator, some research groups have begun to use low‐cost biomass materials as carbon source for solar steam generator, such as silk, 16 cotton, 17 mushrooms, 18 wood, 19 bamboo, 20 kelp, 21 lotus leaf, 22 and so on.…”