Abstract
Solar power, as one of renewable energy, holds potential application for producing steam which relies on high-temperature liquid by traditional methods. Herein, steam was generated by a bio-inspired strategy derived from the plants transpiration using a Printed Recyclable Carbon Membrane (PRCM). The membrane structure facilitated the concentration of carbon particles for the photoreaction and the heat generation for water evaporation, thereby improving the photo-thermal conversion efficiency. The PRCM achieved the best steady evaporation efficiency of 51.9%, which was 5.6 times higher than the value for water and recycling tests were demonstrated. The carbon particles were separated from the water under the magnetism action, a convenient approach that avoided secondary pollution resulting from the disintegration of the PRCM. Rapid preparation, low cost, and reusability of the printed carbon membrane allow for photo-thermal applications such as solar steam generation and seawater desalination.
Highlights
Solar energy becomes one of the most remarkable natural resources because of its abundance and the lack of pollutants that are generated during its use[1,2]
The carbon particles were separated from the water under the magnetism action, a convenient approach that avoided secondary pollution resulting from the disintegration of the Printed Recyclable Carbon Membrane (PRCM)
The X-ray diffractometer analysis (XRD) patterns of the magnetic carbon particles show the characteristic peaks of magnetite (Fig. 4c); the different diffraction peaks correspond well to the (1 1 1), (2 2 0), (3 1 1), (4 0 0), (4 2 2), (5 1 1), (4 4 0), and (5 3 3) that matches the standard pattern of magnetite (JCPDS No 89-0691)
Summary
Solar energy becomes one of the most remarkable natural resources because of its abundance and the lack of pollutants that are generated during its use[1,2]. Liu et al.[16] reported that a multifunctional film consisting of a TiO2 nanoparticles layer and an Au nanoparticles layer produced clean water by steam generation and photocatalytic degradation using simulated sunlight illumination, which is significant for controlling organic pollution in water These devices had excellent ability for solar light absorption. Carbon-based materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes are recently novel localized heating surfaces for photo-thermal conversion due to their high solar absorption ability. A bio-inspired recyclable carbon interface based on highly efficient laser printing technology was prepared through a quick and low-cost method for solar steam generation. 2.1 Preparation and characterization of bio-inspired PRCMs The interface steam generation method is inspired by plant transpiration process (Fig. 1): solar radiation is absorbed by plant leaves and converted into thermal energy, which heated water inside the leaves and converted into vapor released rapidly from the leave stomata[27,28]. The magnetic separation was monitored under different magnetism strengths (25 mT, 50 mT, 100 mT and 200 mT) which could be measured by magnetometer
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