Materials and structures engineering of sun-light absorbers for efficient direct solar steam generation

Karami, Sogol; Roghabadi, Farzaneh Arabpour; Maleki, Mahmoud; Ahmadi, Vahid; Sadrameli, S.M.

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2021.07.046

Cited by 27 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 158 publications

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“…Photothermal materials (as solar absorbers) are another important component in solar vapor generator with solar-to-heat function to give rise to water vapor ( Karami et al, 2021 ). The solar spectrum ranges from 280 to 2,500 nm, with visible and infrared (IR) light contributing the most of energy (97%) ( Gueymard, 2004 ; Liu F. et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Photothermal Materials Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fibrous Aerogels for Solar Vapor Generation

Zhang²,

Shahriari-Khalaji³

et al. 2022

Front. Chem.

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Solar-driven vapor generation is emerging as an eco-friendly and cost-effective water treatment technology for harvesting solar energy. Aerogels are solid materials with desirable high-performance properties, including low density, low thermal conductivity, and high porosity with a large internal surface, which exhibit outstanding performance in the area of solar vapor generation. Using fibers as building blocks in aerogels could achieve unexpected performance in solar vapor generation due to their entangled fibrous network and high surface area. In this review, based on the fusion of the one-dimensional fibers and three-dimensional porous aerogels, we discuss recent development in fibrous aerogels for solar vapor generation based on building blocks synthesis, photothermal materials selection, pore structures construction and device design. Thermal management and water management of fibrous aerogels are also evaluated to improve evaporation performance. Focusing on materials science and engineering, we overview the key challenges and future research opportunities of fibrous aerogels in both fundamental research and practical application of solar vapor generation technology.

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Section: Photothermal Materials Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fibrous Aerogels for Solar Vapor Generation

Zhang²,

Shahriari-Khalaji³

et al. 2022

Front. Chem.

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“…[28][29][30][31] For example, light-trapping structures can be used to enhance the surface sunlight absorption and the efficiency of a solar evaporator is maximized accordingly. [27,32,33] Moreover, lightweight foams with superhydrophobicity have gained significant attention for their potential applications in self-cleaning, antifouling, anti-corrosion, anti-icing, and so on, although durability is one of the major issues limiting their practical application. [34][35][36][37] Combining the surface micro/nanostructures and superhydrophobic polymer foam is an attractive and facile approach to address the gap between state-of-art and practical applications in solar evaporation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cost‐Effective Fabrication of Micro‐Nanostructured Superhydrophobic Polyethylene/Graphene Foam with Self‐Floating, Optical Trapping, Acid‐/Alkali Resistance for Efficient Photothermal Deicing and Interfacial Evaporation

Xie

et al. 2022

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Solar evaporation is one of the most attractive and sustainable approaches to address worldwide freshwater scarcity. Unfortunately, it is still a crucial challenge that needs to be confronted when the solar evaporator faces harsh application environments. Herein, a promising polymer molding method that combines melt blending and compression molding, namely micro extrusion compression molding, is proposed for the cost‐effective fabrication of lightweight polyethylene/graphene nanosheets (PE/GNs) foam with interconnected vapor escape channels and surface micro‐nanostructures. A contact angle of 155 ± 2°, a rolling angle of 5 ± 1° and reflectance of ≈1.6% in the wavelength range of 300–2500 nm appears on the micro‐nanostructured PE/GNs foam surface. More interestingly, the micro‐nanostructured PE/GNs foam surface can maintain a robust superhydrophobic state under dynamic impacting, high temperature and acid‐/alkali solutions. These results mean that the micro‐nanostructured PE/GNs foam surface possesses self‐cleaning, anti‐icing and photothermal deicing properties at the same time. Importantly, the foam exhibits an evaporation rate of 1.83 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 Sun illumination and excellent salt rejecting performance when it is used as a self‐floating solar evaporator. The proposed method provides an ideal and industrialized approach for the mass production of solar evaporators suitable for practical application environments.

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“…SDIE has aroused great interest from researchers due to its advantages of green environmental protection, low cost and adjustable scale. [1][2][3] In recent years, increasing types of photothermal materials (PMs) have been designed based on interfacial evaporation, mainly including natural products, 4-10 polymers, [11][12][13][14][15] carbon materials, [16][17][18][19][20][21] and semiconductors. [22][23][24][25][26][27] Besides, the functions of the developed PMs are becoming increasingly comprehensive, mainly covering long-term salt resistance, 6,[28][29][30][31][32] self-cleaning [33][34][35][36][37] and collaborative power generation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%