Synergistic effect of superhydrophilic skeleton decorated with hierarchical micro/nanostructures and graphene oxide on solar evaporation

Jie Miao, Fengyong Lv, Raza Gulfam and Weiping Zhao

Applied Energy, 2023, vol. 350, issue C, No S0306261923011431

Abstract: Solar evaporation is considered as a sustainable and environment-friendly technology to produce the fresh water. However, the significant improvement in the solar evaporation efficiency is limited by the low energy utilization rate of evaporator, unreasonable design and/or complex manufacturing processes. Herein, the innovative solar vapor generator has been manufactured by the simple chemical oxidation and physical precipitation, consisting of the copper foam and graphene oxide (GO) as matrix. The copper foam skeleton of the innovative solar evaporator decorated with micro/nanostructure limits the heat to the evaporation interface for in-situ heating, effectively generating the vapor and minimizing the heat loss. The superhydrophilic structure and oxygen-containing groups of GO play a positive role in promoting the continuous wetting and water transport. The wetting state of unfilled pores provides sufficient space for the diffusion of vapor from the evaporation interface. Findings demonstrate that the evaporation rate and efficiency of superhydrophilic copper foam solar vapor generator deposited with 1.5 mg/mL GO (SHiCF-GO-1.5) are 1.25 kg/(m2·h) and 88.9% under 1-sun irradiation, respectively. The innovative solar evaporator makes full use of skeleton to expand solar absorption and evaporation interfaces to the whole 3D structure, playing a dominant role for enhancing solar evaporation efficiency.

Keywords: Solar evaporation; Evaporation efficiency; Vapor diffusion; Porous skeleton matrix; Graphene oxide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923011431
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:350:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923011431

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121779

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().