TY - JOUR
T1 - Cellulose-Conducting Polymer Aerogels for Efficient Solar Steam Generation
AU - Han, Shaobo
AU - Ruoko, Tero Petri
AU - Gladisch, Johannes
AU - Erlandsson, Johan
AU - Wågberg, Lars
AU - Crispin, Xavier
AU - Fabiano, Simone
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation (WWSC 2.0 and Tail of the Sun projects), the Swedish Research Council (2016‐03979), the Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linköping University (Faculty Grant SFO Mat LiU No. 2009 00971), ÅForsk (18‐313), and the Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - Seawater desalination and wastewater purification technologies are the main strategies against the global fresh water shortage. Among these technologies, solar-driven evaporation is effective in extracting fresh water by efficiently exploiting solar energy. However, building a sustainable and low-cost solar steam generator with high conversion efficiency is still a challenge. Here, pure organic aerogels comprising a cellulose scaffold decorated with an organic conducting polymer absorbing in the infrared are employed to establish a high performance solar steam generator. The low density of the aerogel ensures minimal material requirements, while simultaneously satisfying efficient water transport. To localize the absorbed solar energy and make the system floatable, a porous floating and thermal-insulating foam is placed between the water and the aerogel. Thanks to the high absorbance of the aerogel and the thermal-localization performance of the foam, the system exhibits a high water evaporation rate of 1.61 kg m−2 h−1 at 1 kW m−2 under 1 sun irradiation, which is higher than most reported solar steam generation devices.
AB - Seawater desalination and wastewater purification technologies are the main strategies against the global fresh water shortage. Among these technologies, solar-driven evaporation is effective in extracting fresh water by efficiently exploiting solar energy. However, building a sustainable and low-cost solar steam generator with high conversion efficiency is still a challenge. Here, pure organic aerogels comprising a cellulose scaffold decorated with an organic conducting polymer absorbing in the infrared are employed to establish a high performance solar steam generator. The low density of the aerogel ensures minimal material requirements, while simultaneously satisfying efficient water transport. To localize the absorbed solar energy and make the system floatable, a porous floating and thermal-insulating foam is placed between the water and the aerogel. Thanks to the high absorbance of the aerogel and the thermal-localization performance of the foam, the system exhibits a high water evaporation rate of 1.61 kg m−2 h−1 at 1 kW m−2 under 1 sun irradiation, which is higher than most reported solar steam generation devices.
KW - cellulose aerogels
KW - freeze-drying
KW - PEDOT:PSS
KW - solar steam generation
KW - water purification
U2 - 10.1002/adsu.202000004
DO - 10.1002/adsu.202000004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85083643908
SN - 2366-7486
VL - 4
JO - Advanced Sustainable Systems
JF - Advanced Sustainable Systems
IS - 7
M1 - 2000004
ER -
