Li Xiaorui, Wang Pengxu, Lu Qianyun, Yao Houze, Yang Ce, Zhao Yanming, Hu Jiayi, Zhou Hongfeng, Song Mengyao, Cheng Huhu, Dai Hongliang, Wang Xingang, Geng Hongya
School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, PR China; Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China.
Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China.
Water Res. 2023 Oct 1;244:120447. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120447. Epub 2023 Aug 6.
Natural solar-powered steam generation provides a promising strategy to deal with deteriorating water resources. However, the practical applications of this strategy are limited by the tedious manufacturing of structures at micro-nano levels to concentrate heat and transport water to heat-localized regions. Herein, this work reports the fabrication of hierarchically porous aerohydrogel with enhanced light absorption and thermal localization at the air-solid interface. This aerohydrogel steam generator is fabricated by a simple yet controllable micropore generation approach to assemble air and hydrogel into hierarchically porous gas-solid hybrids. The tunable micropore size in a wide range from 99±49µm to 316±58μm not only enables contrasting sunlight absorptance (0.2 - 2.5µm) by reducing the reflection of solar light but also harnesses water transportation to the heating region via a capillary force-driven liquid flow. Therefore, a solar-vapor conversion efficiency of 91.3% under one sun irradiation was achieved using this aerohydrogel evaporator, reaching a ready evaporation rate of 2.76kg m h and 3.71kg m h under one and two sun irradiations, respectively. Our work provides a versatile and scalable approach to engineering porous hydrogels for highly efficient steam generation and opens an avenue for other potential practical applications based on this aerohydrogel.
天然太阳能驱动的蒸汽产生为应对日益恶化的水资源提供了一种很有前景的策略。然而，该策略的实际应用受到微纳米级结构制造繁琐的限制，这些结构用于集中热量并将水输送到热局部区域。在此，本工作报道了在气固界面处具有增强光吸收和热局部化的分级多孔气凝胶的制备。这种气凝胶蒸汽发生器是通过一种简单且可控的微孔生成方法制造的，该方法将空气和水凝胶组装成分级多孔的气固混合物。可调微孔尺寸范围从99±49μm到316±58μm，不仅通过减少太阳光反射实现了对比太阳光吸收率（0.2 - 2.5μm），还通过毛细力驱动的液流将水输送到加热区域。因此，使用这种气凝胶蒸发器在一个太阳辐照下实现了91.3%的太阳能蒸汽转换效率，在一个太阳和两个太阳辐照下分别达到了2.76kg m² h⁻¹和3.71kg m² h⁻¹的蒸发速率。我们的工作为工程化多孔水凝胶以实现高效蒸汽产生提供了一种通用且可扩展的方法，并为基于这种气凝胶的其他潜在实际应用开辟了一条途径。
