Porous Carbon Nanofoam Derived From Pitch as Solar Receiver for Efficient Solar Steam Generation.

Lihua Chen,Chuantao Zhang,Hailing Li,Shujing Zhao,Xiaofang Luo,Qi-Meige Hasi,An Li

doi:10.1002/gch2.201900098

Abstract

Photothermal‐material‐assisted solar‐steam generation has recently attracted intensive attention due to its superior evaporation rate with high energy conversion efficiency for desalination. In this work, a simple approach for fabrication of porous carbon nanofoam (PCN) is reported, which is prepared by the carbonization of pitch using a combination of CaCO3 and NaCl templates, Meanwhile, NaCl saturated solution acts as a porogen to produce micropores and mesopores as solar receiver for efficient solar steam generation. The as‐prepared PCN shows excellent porosity and mesoporous feature with an average pore size of 26.8 nm. It also shows superior light absorption of 88% and better thermal insulation (thermal conductivity 0.993 W m−1 K−1). Based on these characteristics, the as‐prepared PCN can be used as a promising solar receiver. Under 1 sun, 2 sun, and 3 sun irradiation, the PCN‐based solar receiver shows high energy conversion efficiencies of 88%, 86%, and 84%, respectively. Taking advantage of the abundant, low‐cost, and commercial availability of pitch as well as its simple and cost‐effective manufacture method, the PCN‐based solar receiver may hold great potential for a broad variety of solar‐steam generation applications, for instance, fresh water production, power generation, desalination, and so on.

Highlights

Photothermal-material-assisted solar-steam generation has recently attracted of modern society.[1]
Inspired by the previous works reported by others and us,[43,44,45,46] in this work, we demonstrate a new approach for facile fabrication of porous carbon nanofoam (PCN) as efficient solar receiver for solar steam generation
The results revealed the uniform distribution of the C, O, and Ca elements on the surface of PCN coating, uniform distribution is beneficial for light absorption

Summary

Introduction which is benefited from its unique “interfacial-evaporation”

The severe issues of the scarcity of water resources or water zation. According to these design principles, a wide range of pollution have seriously restricted the sustainable development photothermal materials have been created so far, including carbon-based materials,[21,22,23] metallic nano-particles,[24,25,26]. The as-resulted PCN has good thermal stability, excellent light absorption, low apparent density, and thermal conductivity, which render it an ideal candidate as a solar photothermal material. Based on these merits mentioned above, the PCN shows superior solar photothermal performance with a high evaporation rate of 1.68 kg m−2 h−1 achieved under 1 sun irradiation. The solar energy conversion efficiency was measured to be as high as 88%, 86%, and 84% under 1 sun, 2 sun, and 3 sun irradiation, respectively Taking advantages of their high solar steam generation performance, low-cost raw chemicals, and simple manufacture process, the PCN may have great potentials as a kind of promising solar receiver for solar steam generation.

Results and Discussion

Conclusions

Experimental Section

Conflict of Interest