Nature-inspired 3D hierarchical carbon nanotube matrices enable extraordinary solar steam generation  

作　　者：Chuanshuai Dong Lei Chen Weiquan Lin Zipai Li Linjie Wei Chaohua Peng Huan Liu Ronghui Qi Lin Lu Lizhi Zhang 

机构地区：[1]Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of Education Ministry,School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,South China University of Technology,Guangzhou,China [2]Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering,The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,Hong Kong,China [3]State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building and Urban Science,South China University of Technology,Guangzhou,China

出　　处：《Carbon Energy》2025年第3期34-48,共15页碳能源(英文)

基　　金：Funding information National Natural Science Foundation of China,Grant/Award Numbers:52476072,51936005;Young Talent Support Project of Guangzhou Association for Science and Technology;Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(No.2024A1515030035);Guangdong Pro vincial University Innovation Team Project(No.2023KCXTD038)。

摘　　要：Interfacial solar evaporation,which captures solar energy and localizes the absorbed heat for water evaporation,is considered a promising technology for seawater desalination and solar energy conversion.However,it is currently limited by its low photothermal conversion efficiency,salt accumulation,and poor reliability.Herein,inspired by human intestinal villi structure,we design and fabricate a novel intestinal villi-like nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes solar steam generator(N-CNTs SSG)consisting of three-dimensional(3D)hierarchical carbon nanotube matrices for ultrahigh solar evaporation efficiency.The 3D matrices with radial direction nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube clusters achieve ultrahigh surface area,photothermal efficiency,and hydrophilicity,which significantly intensifies the whole interfacial solar evaporation process.The new solar evaporation efficiency reaches as high as 96.8%.Furthermore,our ab initio molecular dynamics simulation reveals that N-doped carbon nanotubes exhibit a greater number of electronic states in close proximity to the Fermi level when compared to pristine carbon nanotubes.The outstanding absorptivity in the full solar spectrum and high solar altitude angles of the 3D hierarchical carbon nanotube matrices offer great potential to enable ultrahigh photothermal conversion under all-day and all-season circumstances.

关 键 词：fermi level interfacial solar evaporation nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes photothermal conversion 

分 类 号：TB3[一般工业技术—材料科学与工程]