Liu Hao, Ye Hong-Gang, Gao Minmin, Li Qing, Liu Zhiwu, Xie An-Quan, Zhu Liangliang, Ho Ghim Wei, Chen Su
State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals and Functional Polymer Materials, Nanjing Tech University, 5 Xin Mofan Road, Nanjing, 210009, P. R. China.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 3, Singapore, 117583, Singapore.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2021 Oct;8(19):e2101232. doi: 10.1002/advs.202101232. Epub 2021 Aug 7.
Solar-driven water evaporation and valuable fuel generation is an environmentally friendly and sustainable way for clean water and energy production. However, a few bottlenecks for practical applications are high-cost, low productivity, and severe sunlight angle dependence. Herein, solar evaporation with enhanced photocatalytic capacity that is light direction insensitive and of efficiency breakthrough by virtue of a three-dimensional (3D) photothermal catalytic spherical isotopic evaporator is demonstrated. A homogeneous layer of microfluidic blow spun polyamide nanofibers loaded with efficient light absorber of polypyrrole nanoparticles conformally wraps onto a lightweight, thermal insulating plastic sphere, featuring favorable interfacial solar heating and efficient water transportation. The 3D spherical geometry not only guarantees the omnidirectional solar absorbance by the light-facing hemisphere, but also keeps the other hemisphere under shadow to harvest energy from the warmer environment. As a result, the light-to-vapor efficiency exceeds the theoretical limit, reaching 217% and 156% under 1 and 2 sun, respectively. Simultaneously, CO photoreduction with generated steam reveals a favorable clean fuels production rate using photocatalytic spherical evaporator by secondary growth of Cu O nanoparticles. Finally, an outdoor demonstration manifests a high evaporation rate and easy-to-perform construction on-site, providing a promising opportunity for efficient and decentralized water and clean fuel production.
太阳能驱动的水蒸发和有价值燃料的产生是一种环境友好且可持续的清洁水和能源生产方式。然而，实际应用中存在一些瓶颈，如成本高、生产率低以及对阳光角度的严重依赖性。在此，展示了一种具有增强光催化能力的太阳能蒸发，该能力对光方向不敏感，并且借助三维（3D）光热催化球形同位素蒸发器实现了效率突破。一层均匀的微流体吹纺聚酰胺纳米纤维负载着聚吡咯纳米颗粒这种高效光吸收剂，共形地包裹在一个轻质、隔热的塑料球体上，具有良好的界面太阳能加热和高效的水传输性能。3D球形结构不仅保证了面向光的半球全方位吸收太阳能，还使另一个半球处于阴影下，以从较温暖的环境中获取能量。结果，光蒸汽效率超过了理论极限，在1个太阳和2个太阳光照下分别达到217%和156%。同时，利用光催化球形蒸发器通过氧化铜纳米颗粒的二次生长，蒸汽中一氧化碳的光还原显示出良好的清洁燃料生产率。最后，户外演示表明蒸发速率高且现场施工简便，为高效、分散的水和清洁燃料生产提供了一个有前景的机会。
