Solar-driven photothermal nanostructured materials designs and prerequisites for evaporation and catalysis applications

Abstract

Solar-driven photothermal conversion by nanostructured materials is a direct solar energy conversion process that has been used as a novel strategy to augment vaporization and catalysis performance.

Hybrid Photothermal Pyroelectric and Thermogalvanic Generator for Multisituation Low Grade Heat Harvesting

“…Porous structure such as aerogels, [6,42] carbonized polymers, [43,44] and even woods [5,45,46] have been widely adopted in steam generation expedition to create confined high temperature region (i.e., heat localization) enabled by their intrinsic low thermal conductivity and high porosity. In the context that solar is used as heat source, the temperature gradient across the device is closely related to the heat transfer capacity of the electrolyte.…”

“…Moreover, low grade solar thermal harvesting has attracted significant interest because of its versatility in numerous applications such as steam generation, [1][2][3][4][5] photo/electrocatalysis, [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] energy harvesters, [13][14][15][16][17] and actuators. Seemingly, the intermittency issue can be circumvented, by alternatively intercepting and capturing of solar thermal energy fluxes.…”

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

“…H v is determined by the vaporization temperature of the water/air interface (2453 kJ kg −1 at 20 °C and 2265 kJ kg −1 at 100 °C), and H s is dependent on the specific heat of water (c water = 4.186 kJ kg −1 °C −1 ) and its temperature change. Several previous reviews have briefly summarized the diverse solar absorber materials and device designs of steam generators, [13,23,[26][27][28][29]111] whereas we will mainly focus on the latest representative strategies for enhancing water evaporation efficiency in the following part. In aim to minimize heat losses and boost conversion efficiency, an insulating and hydrophilic porous supporter has been integrated into the floating system to avoid the direct contact between photothermal materials and bulk water, as shown in Figure 3a, which has been regarded as the next generation solar-driven water evaporation device.…”

“…Motivated by the demands of both fundamental researches and practical applications, much effort has been paid to harness solar energy for diverse ever-evolving applications ranging from power generation, [9,10] photocatalysis/catalysis, [11][12][13][14] solar cells, [15,16] and water purification [14,17,18] to water desalination. Motivated by the demands of both fundamental researches and practical applications, much effort has been paid to harness solar energy for diverse ever-evolving applications ranging from power generation, [9,10] photocatalysis/catalysis, [11][12][13][14] solar cells, [15,16] and water purification [14,17,18] to water desalination.…”

Thermo‐Photocatalysis: Environmental and Energy Applications

“…The need to make catalytic systems more efficient requires continuousa dvancement in the field of materials ynthesis, improvement of reactor design, development of novel characterization techniques, and optimization of reactionp arameters. [5,6] The concepto ft hermo-photo effects (in some cases "photo-thermo" has been used) hasc ome into picture in the last few years where the need to develop as uperiorc atalytic system that incorporates the positive aspects of photocatalysisw ith those of traditional thermalc atalysis to have ah igher catalytic activity and applicabilityu nder renewable solar energy. [3] The situationi sf urtherw orsened by the rise of environmental issues that have called into question the sustainabilityo ft he planet.…”