Highly efficient solar vapour generation via hierarchically nanostructured gels

Fei Zhao, Xingyi Zhou, Ye Shi, Xin Qian, Megan Alexander, Xinpeng Zhao, Samantha Mendez, Ronggui Yang, Liangti Qu, Guihua Yu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1508 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Solar vapour generation is an efficient way of harvesting solar energy for the purification of polluted or saline water. However, water evaporation suffers from either inefficient utilization of solar energy or relies on complex and expensive light-concentration accessories. Here, we demonstrate a hierarchically nanostructured gel (HNG) based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polypyrrole (PPy) that serves as an independent solar vapour generator. The converted energy can be utilized in situ to power the vaporization of water contained in the molecular meshes of the PVA network, where water evaporation is facilitated by the skeleton of the hydrogel. A floating HNG sample evaporated water with a record high rate of 3.2 kg m-2 h-1 via 94% solar energy from 1 sun irradiation, and 18-23 litres of water per square metre of HNG was delivered daily when purifying brine water. These values were achievable due to the reduced latent heat of water evaporation in the molecular mesh under natural sunlight.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)489-495
Number of pages7
JournalNature Nanotechnology
Volume13
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2018
Externally publishedYes

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