作者：Ran Niu, Jiaxin Ren, J. Justin Koh, Ling Chen, Jiang Gong*, Jinping Qu, Xiaodong Xu, Jalal Azadmanji
关键字：solar energy, solar evaporation, phase change material, thermal regulation, thermoelectricity, freshwater production
论文来源：期刊
具体来源：Advanced Energy Materials
发表时间：2023年

Ran Niu, Jiaxin Ren, J. Justin Koh, Ling Chen, Jiang Gong*, Jinping Qu, Xiaodong Xu, Jalal Azadmanjiri, Jiakang Min*

Bio-inspired sandwich-structured all-day-round solar evaporator for synergistic clean water and electricity generation

Advanced Energy Materials (2023) Accept.

The integration of solar-driven interfacial evaporation and electricity co-generation is considered a promising approach to simultaneously alleviate freshwater scarcity and energy crisis. However, affected by intermittent solar irradiation/uncontrollable weather, the overall performance of solar-driven evaporation in the real world is greatly reduced. Herein, inspired by antifreeze proteins in beetles which survive in extreme climates, we design all-weather solar-driven interfacial evaporators with a sandwich structure. The top and bottom layers composed of MnO₂-modified cotton cloth are used for photothermal conversion and water transport, meanwhile the middle layer made of phase change microcapsule/hydrogel composite serves for heat storage and release. Under 1 kW m^-2 irradiation, the evaporator exhibits a high evaporation rate of 2.67 kg m^-2 h^-1 and the efficiency of 89.5%. In the dark, the heat released from the phase change layer supports an evaporation rate of 0.43 kg m^-2 h^-1, 3.6 times that of pure water. Additionally, assembled with a thermoelectric module, the hybrid device achieves a stable output electricity power of 0.42 W m^-2 under 1-sun illumination and a prolonged output for 30 min under dark. This work provides a novel approach for full-time solar-powered steam-electricity co-generation and a proof of concept for biomimetic steam generation/heat management integration.