Vertically Aligned Graphene Sheets Membrane for Highly Efficient Solar Thermal Generation of Clean Water

Panpan Zhang, Jing Li, Lingxiao Lv, Yang Zhao, Liangti Qu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

894 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Efficient utilization of solar energy for clean water is an attractive, renewable, and environment friendly way to solve the long-standing water crisis. For this task, we prepared the long-range vertically aligned graphene sheets membrane (VA-GSM) as the highly efficient solar thermal converter for generation of clean water. The VA-GSM was prepared by the antifreeze-assisted freezing technique we developed, which possessed the run-through channels facilitating the water transport, high light absorption capacity for excellent photothermal transduction, and the extraordinary stability in rigorous conditions. As a result, VA-GSM has achieved average water evaporation rates of 1.62 and 6.25 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 and 4 sun illumination with a superb solar thermal conversion efficiency of up to 86.5% and 94.2%, respectively, better than that of most carbon materials reported previously, which can efficiently produce the clean water from seawater, common wastewater, and even concentrated acid and/or alkali solutions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5087-5093
Number of pages7
JournalACS Nano
Volume11
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 23 May 2017

Keywords

  • clean water
  • graphene assembly
  • solar thermal conversion
  • steam generation
  • vertically aligned graphene sheets membrane

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Vertically Aligned Graphene Sheets Membrane for Highly Efficient Solar Thermal Generation of Clean Water'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this