Abstract
Photothermal conversion is an environmentally friendly process that harvests energy from the sun and has been attracting growing research interest in recent years. However, nanostructured strategies to improve light capture performance deserve further development, and the application of solar heating effects for clean energy needs to be explored. Herein, a multiscale nanomaterial was prepared by in situ polymerizing the polyaniline (PANI) nanoparticles into porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane. As a result, the as-prepared PANI-AAO shows broadband solar absorption and provides a platform for efficient photothermal conversion. What is more, we introduced a typical thermoelectricity generator (TEG) with excellent output performance and combined it with PANI-AAO to prepare a solar thermoelectric generator (s-TEG). The s-TEG harvests solar energy and converts it into electricity, showing an outstanding power generation capability in outdoor conditions. Thus, the nanostructured broadband solar absorber and the integrated solar thermoelectric generator offer a promising candidate for a sustainable and green energy source in the future.
Highlights
Received: 31 December 2021With industrial development and population growth, energy shortages and environmental degradation have become common issues all over the world [1]
Polyaniline (PANI) is an excellent photothermal polymer that is characterized by π-conjugated backbones of contiguous sp2 -hybridized carbon atoms and has been widely used in solar-to-heat conversion due to its advantages of cheap and easy to obtain, simple synthesis, good environmental stability and excellent broadband absorption properties [29]
We proposed a simple route to load polyaniline (PANI) nanoparticles on the through oxidative polymerization, and under the regulation of phytic acid, polyaniline surface of a commercial porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane to design a new gradually evolves and aggregates into nanoparticles fill the surface of AAO.efficiency
Summary
Received: 31 December 2021With industrial development and population growth, energy shortages and environmental degradation have become common issues all over the world [1]. Mankind has gradually reduced its dependence on fossil fuels and developed renewable and clean energy [2,3]. Non-fossil energy such as wind energy, solar energy, hydro energy, biomass energy and geothermal energy is of great significance for protecting the ecological environment, coping with climate change and realizing sustainable economic and social development. Wind energy is the kinetic energy generated by air flow, which is renewable and widely distributed, and can be converted into heat energy and/or electric energy through comprehensive engineering technology. It has low energy density, instability and great technical difficulty. There are still great challenges in the development of new green energy [1]
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