Shape Conformal and Thermal Insulative Organic Solar Absorber Sponge for Photothermal Water Evaporation and Thermoelectric Power Generation

Abstract

can attain the highest achievable conversion efficiency and enable a broad range of applications, including domestic heating, brine desalination, wastewater purification, steam sterilization, and power generation. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] One actualization of solarto-thermal technology, solar-driven water evaporation can directly transfer heat to drive evaporation using sunlight as the only power input. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Compared with the conventional solar-driven steam generation system which requires high optical devices and large footprints investment, the emerging interfacial photothermal water evaporation based on nanostructured solar receiver materials restrict the solar heat at the water-air interface to suppress the heat losses and enhance the conversion efficiency. To date, significant progress in preparation of solar absorber materials, including semiconductors, [16][17][18] metallic, [19][20][21] and carbonaceous nanomaterials, [22][23][24][25] alongside with prudent system designs, e.g., environmental enhancement, [26][27][28] optical, [28][29][30] and thermal management [31][32][33] The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201900250. Photothermal ConversionSolar energy is an inexhaustible energy source for the development of sustainable energy technology. Solar-to-thermal technology is a direct strategy for harvesting solar energy, which Adv. Energy

Highly salt-resistant and all-weather solar-driven interfacial evaporators with photothermal and electrothermal effects based on Janus graphene@silicone sponges

“…[1][2][3][4] Solar-driven interfacial (SI) evaporation has recently been emerging as a very promising approach to purify water by localizing heat at the water-vapor interface. [4][5] High evaporation rate and solar-vapor efficiency have been achieved by developing advanced SI evaporators via the combination of new photothermal materials (e.g., semiconductors, 6 carbonaceous materials 7 and metal oxides 8 ), structural optimization and thermal management. 3,[9][10] Now, the main bottleneck hindering SI evaporators from practical solar desalination is serious salt-fouling due to insufficient water supply, strong solar flux and high salt concentration, etc.…”

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

“…[160,161] It is worth noting that the maximum output power was achieved to 0.05 mW (external resistance is about 2 Ω) when the thermoelectric module was used as heat insulator of water evaporator. However, this case requires a high energy input (up to 30 kW m −2 ).…”

Photothermal Devices for Sustainable Uses Beyond Desalination

“…Reproduced with permission. [ 10 ] Copyright 2019, Wiley‐VCH; b) an open TEC driven by interfacial photothermal evaporation. Reproduced with permission.…”

“…[ 8 ] The photothermal effect can be also used to generate electric power based on photothermoelectric conversion, in which the turbine is driven by the steam generated from solar heating. [ 9,10 ]…”