Solar steam generation based on the photothermal effect: from designs to applications, and beyond

Lin, Yawen; Xu, Hao; Shan, Xiaoli; Di, Yunsong; Zhao, Aiqing; Hu, Yujing; Gan, Zhixing

doi:10.1039/c9ta05935k

Cited by 212 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 122 publications

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“…Although there are many reviews on SDID, they mostly focus on improving evaporation efficiency by optimizing the materials/devices for solar energy absorption, light‐to‐thermal conversion, and water transportation. [ 33–50 ] However, many current studies lack specific research on salt mitigation, which in turn greatly hindered the practical application of SDID.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt Mitigation Strategies of Solar‐Driven Interfacial Desalination

Wang

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

208

102

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Solar‐driven interfacial desalination (SDID), which is based on localized heating and interfacial evaporation, provides an opportunity for developing environmentally friendly and cost‐effective seawater thermal desalination. However, localized heating and rapidly generated interfacial steam may cause salt to accumulate on the evaporator's surface and block the channel of steam evaporation. Salt accumulation inevitably reduces the light absorption and service period of the solar absorber, resulting in a significant decrease in evaporation efficiency over time. Salt accumulation makes it difficult to produce SDID devices with high energy efficiency and long‐term stability for large‐scale use in remote poverty‐stricken areas. Therefore, the exploration of novel and effective strategies for addressing salt accumulation through both material design and structural engineering has attracted more attention in recent years. This review presents an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art advancements in salt‐resistant photothermal evaporation and discusses the critical issues for achieving salt mitigation SDID, focusing on the classification of salt mitigation strategies based on photothermal evaporation configurations, the basic mechanism of salt mitigation, and the architectural design of photothermal materials. Finally, the important challenges and prospects of SDID are discussed to providing a meaningful roadmap to efficient salt mitigation SDID.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt Mitigation Strategies of Solar‐Driven Interfacial Desalination

Wang

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

208

102

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“…[7][8][9] To date, various types of light absorbers, such as metallic nanoparticles, [10][11][12][13] carbonbased materials, [14][15][16] polymers, [17][18][19] and semiconductors [20][21][22] have been demonstrated for efficient solar absorption. [23,24] Among them, carbon-based materials, including exfoliated graphite, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and other carbon materials have attracted extensive attention due to their high-efficiency, chemical stability, and excellent broadband solar absorption. [25] However, there are still great difficulties in the pursuit of low-cost and environment-friendly carbon materials to achieve large-scale applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrated Acid‐Induced Dehydration of Fallen Leaves for Efficient, Sustainable, and Self‐Cleaning Solar Steam Generation

Shan

Xiong

Sheng

et al. 2020

Adv Energy and Sustain Res

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To develop solar steam generation (SGG) for water treatment, light absorbers have been widely synthesized by carbonization of plants at high temperature. However, the thermal treatment has high energy‐consumption and is environmentally unfriendly. Thus, it is urgent to explore new green approaches to convert biomasses to carbon materials for SSG. Herein, a concentrated acid‐induced dehydration method is developed to convert fallen leaves to carbon powders, fallen‐leaf photothermal film prepared by dehydration (FLPD). The resultant FLPD exhibits a strong absorption covering a wide spectrum. It also contains sufficient oxygen‐containing groups on the surface, leading to low water evaporation enthalpy. To meet the demands of practical applications, the FLPD membrane is modified with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to improve the mechanical stabilities and the surface wettability is further enhanced by an oxygen plasma treatment. An SSG device based on the modified membrane attains a competitive evaporation rate of 1.355 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun irradiation. The evaporation rate remains approximately constant when evaporating the seawater. Moreover, the salt deposited on the surface could be self‐cleaned due to the high wettability. Therefore, herein, it is demonstrated that concentrated acid‐induced dehydration is an effective and green approach to convert cheap biomasses to carbon materials for SSG applications.

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“…The performance is comparable to recently reported state‐of‐the‐art material systems (Table S1, Supporting Information). [ 5h,i,29 ] The heat loss of the aerogel, including conduction, radiation, and convection, [ 5h,19a,30 ] is calculated to be ≈7.05% under 1 kW m −2 solar irradiation (Equations S6‐S8, Supporting Information). In addition, the η value of the optimal D‐HNb 3 O 8 /PAM aerogel is about 71% and 64% higher than that of the pure water and bare PAM aerogel, respectively.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectrum Tailored Defective 2D Semiconductor Nanosheets Aerogel for Full‐Spectrum‐Driven Photothermal Water Evaporation and Photochemical Degradation

Yang

Tan

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

222

101

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The wide spectral range of the solar flux with undesirable diffused energy distribution remains a substantial impediment to the high-efficiency utilization of the whole spectrum. Here, inspired by the spectrally selective sunlight utilization of plants, a spectrum-tailored solar harnessing aerogel is conceived. It is composed of oxygen vacancy (O v) defect-rich semiconductor HNb 3 O 8 (D-HNb 3 O 8) nanosheets and polyacrylamide (PAM) framework to perform all-in-one photochemical and photothermal full solar energy conversion. The aerogel selectively utilizes the whole solar spectrum, in which high energy ultraviolet (UV) photon is converted into high redox potential electron-hole pairs, while low energy visible-near infrared (NIR) photons are transformed into heat. The designed solar absorber-polymer composite shows energy harnessing-conversion capability with desired heat insulation, reactant enrichment, rapid mass diffusion and capillary pumping characteristics, thus realizing a high efficient steam generation and photochemical activity. This cooperative photochemical and photothermal solar energy conversion, at respective optimal working spectrum, holds great promise for optimizing and maximizing the solar energy utilization, as well as opening up opportunities to explore simultaneous multifunctional usage of solar energy.

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Solar steam generation based on the photothermal effect: from designs to applications, and beyond

Abstract: Rational design of solar absorption, heat conversion and water supply for efficient solar steam generation.

Cited by 212 publications

References 122 publications

Salt Mitigation Strategies of Solar‐Driven Interfacial Desalination

Salt Mitigation Strategies of Solar‐Driven Interfacial Desalination

Concentrated Acid‐Induced Dehydration of Fallen Leaves for Efficient, Sustainable, and Self‐Cleaning Solar Steam Generation

Spectrum Tailored Defective 2D Semiconductor Nanosheets Aerogel for Full‐Spectrum‐Driven Photothermal Water Evaporation and Photochemical Degradation

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