Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
Adv Mater. 2017 Oct;29(38). doi: 10.1002/adma.201702590. Epub 2017 Aug 18.
Efficient solar-thermal energy conversion is essential for the harvesting and transformation of abundant solar energy, leading to the exploration and design of efficient solar-thermal materials. Carbon-based materials, especially graphene, have the advantages of broadband absorption and excellent photothermal properties, and hold promise for solar-thermal energy conversion. However, to date, graphene-based solar-thermal materials with superior omnidirectional light harvesting performances remain elusive. Herein, hierarchical graphene foam (h-G foam) with continuous porosity grown via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is reported, showing dramatic enhancement of broadband and omnidirectional absorption of sunlight, which thereby can enable a considerable elevation of temperature. Used as a heating material, the external solar-thermal energy conversion efficiency of the h-G foam impressively reaches up to ≈93.4%, and the solar-vapor conversion efficiency exceeds 90% for seawater desalination with high endurance.
高效的太阳能转换对于收集和转化丰富的太阳能至关重要，因此需要探索和设计高效的太阳能转换材料。碳基材料，特别是石墨烯，具有宽带吸收和优异的光热性能，有望应用于太阳能转换。然而，迄今为止，具有优异全向光捕获性能的基于石墨烯的太阳能转换材料仍难以实现。在此，报告了一种通过等离子体增强化学气相沉积生长的具有连续孔隙率的分级石墨烯泡沫（h-G 泡沫），其表现出对太阳光的宽带和全向吸收的显著增强，从而可以显著提高温度。作为一种加热材料，h-G 泡沫的外部太阳能转换效率高达约 93.4%，并且用于海水淡化的太阳能蒸汽转换效率超过 90%，具有高耐久性。
