High-Porosity Lamellar Films Prepared by a Multistage Assembly Strategy for Efficient Photothermal Water Evaporation and Power Generation

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2022-06, Vol.14 (25), p.29099-29110
• Main Authors: Wu, Yiting, Huang, Hongqiang, Zhou, Weiming, You, Chuanting, Ye, Huilan, Chen, Jia, Zang, Shuo, Yun, Juhua, Chen, Xinqi, Wang, Liwei, Yuan, Zhanhui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Functional Nanostructured Materials (including low-D carbon)
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c05125

The frame structure combined with water- and heat-transfer capabilities fully satisfies the requirements of photothermal conversion materials in seawater evaporation applications. Meanwhile, it must integrate the characteristics of a high photothermal conversion rate, thermal management, and water transportation. Herein, lamellar porous films were successfully designed and synthesized by a simple ultrasonic-assisted vacuum filtration method. In this process, polystyrene sulfonate@carbon nanotubes/reduced graphene oxide (PSS@CNT/rGO) lamellar films were constructed by the one-dimensional synthesis of PSS@CNT self-assembled at the molecular scale and the two-dimensional matrix material rGO. It is worth noting that the lamellar film exhibits a high specific surface area (285.5 m2·g–1), which is reflected in its abundant nanopores. Among them, the porous network system composed of nanochannels can provide efficient water supply and steam-transfer ability and strengthen the heat insulation performance of thermal localization, which is beneficial to photothermal evaporation. The obtained PSS@CNT/rGO lamellar films achieved a condensed water yield of 1.825 kg·m–2·h–1 under 1 sun illumination (1 kW·m–2), and their solar-vapor conversion efficiency was 97.1%. Simultaneously, the interaction between the water flow and the carbon material interface was also used to generate additional electric energy output. The maximum open-circuit voltage of 0.46 V was generated at both termini of the PSS@CNT/rGO lamellar film, which successfully realized the multieffect utilization of energy. These results show that the multistage assembly strategy is a facile and effective means for the development of an efficient evaporation photothermal film, which offers significant value in the field of photothermal seawater evaporation and power generation.