Implementing Hybrid Energy Harvesting in 3D Spherical Evaporator for Solar Steam Generation and Synergic Water Purification

Abstract

Solar‐powered water evaporation provides a promising strategy for eco‐friendly and cost‐effective freshwater production. The exploration of high‐performance photothermal materials and the rational design of evaporation architectures are crucial in promoting solar steam generation efficiency. Herein, multidimensional MXene‐based composites with well‐organized heterojunction nanostructures are proposed as bifunctional photothermal materials. The solar thermal conversion, chemical stability, and photocatalysis degradation properties are enhanced by anchoring Co3O4 nanoparticles on delaminated ultrathin MXene nanosheets, compared with that of Ti3C2 MXene. Based on these advantages, an integrated 3D spherical evaporator is constructed using the Co3O4/Ti3C2 MXene‐based fabric. The evaporator shows its distinct advantages in maximizing the harvest of the hybrid energy from sunlight and the ambient environment, making it ideal for solar steam generation and synergetic water purification. An extremely high evaporation rate of 1.89 kg m−2 h−1 with a corresponding light‐to‐vapor energy conversion efficiency beyond the theoretical limit (130.4%) is achieved. More importantly, while the evaporation rate of the 2D evaporator significantly recedes upon the oblique sunlight irradiation, the evaporation rate of the 3D spherical evaporator is constantly high at different incident angles of sunlight, which satisfies the requirement of practical applications under moving sun.

NiS2 Nanocubes Coated Ti3C2 Nanosheets with Enhanced Light‐to‐Heat Conversion for Fast and Efficient Solar Seawater Steam Generation

“… represents the evaporation point temperature, and T w represents the seawater temperature at room temperature. [ 24 ] After calculation, the photothermal conversion efficiency under 1, 3, and 5 sun is 83.84%, 84.23%, and 84.02%, respectively. It proves that NiS 2 @Ti 3 C 2 has excellent light‐to‐heat conversion efficiency and is a promising material for light‐to‐heat evaporation of seawater.…”

A Hollow and Compressible 3D Photothermal Evaporator for Highly Efficient Solar Steam Generation without Energy Loss

“…[ 27,41,52,68 ] More recently, novel 3D photothermal evaporators were developed which successfully boosted the evaporation rate and exceeded the theoretical limit of light‐to‐vapor energy conversion efficiency. [ 23–25,69–76 ] This was achieved by introducing additional cold evaporation surfaces with a lower surface temperature than the surrounding environment to harvest additional energy from the surrounding air to enhance water evaporation. [ 69,70,72–74,76 ] Such 3D evaporators have also shown the ability to take advantage of convective air flow, [ 23,26 ] recycle latent heat released from vapor condensation, [ 25,77 ] and extract energy from bulk water to enhance solar steam generation.…”

MXenes for Solar Cells

“…With the ever-increasing demand of clean and renewable energy resources [1][2][3][4], considerable attention has been devoted to the development of novel materials toward efficient solar cells [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. As a family of important two-dimensional materials, MXenes, layered carbides and nitrides of transition metals first reported by the Gogotsi group in 2011 [15], which have been extensively investigated in various fields including energy storage [16][17][18][19][20][21][22], biomedical fields [23][24][25], electromagnetic applications [26][27][28][29], sensors [30][31][32][33][34], light-emitting diodes [35][36][37], water purification [38][39][40][41][42][43] and catalysis [44][45][46]…”