Conformal Microfluidic‐Blow‐Spun 3D Photothermal Catalytic Spherical Evaporator for Omnidirectional Enhanced Solar Steam Generation and CO2 Reduction

• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202101232
• Publication Date: 2021-08-07T08:24:43Z
• Authors: Hao Liu; Hong‐Gang Ye; Minmin Gao; Qing Li; Zhiwu Liu; An‐Quan Xie; Liangliang Zhu; Ghim Wei Ho; Su Chen
• Keywords: interfacial solar steam generation; Science; Q; 540; 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences; desalination; omnidirectional absorbance; CO2 reduction; 13. Climate action; microfluidic blow spinning; photocatalysis; Research Articles

Solar-driven water evaporation and valuable fuel generation is an environmentally friendly sustainable way for clean energy production. However, a few bottlenecks practical applications are high-cost, low productivity, severe sunlight angle dependence. Herein, solar with enhanced photocatalytic capacity that light direction insensitive of efficiency breakthrough by virtue three-dimensional (3D) photothermal catalytic spherical isotopic evaporator demonstrated. A homogeneous layer microfluidic blow spun polyamide nanofibers loaded efficient absorber polypyrrole nanoparticles conformally wraps onto lightweight, thermal insulating plastic sphere, featuring favorable interfacial heating transportation. The 3D geometry not only guarantees the omnidirectional absorbance light-facing hemisphere, but also keeps other hemisphere under shadow to harvest from warmer environment. As result, light-to-vapor exceeds theoretical limit, reaching 217% 156% 1 2 sun, respectively. Simultaneously, CO2 photoreduction generated steam reveals fuels production rate using secondary growth Cu2 O nanoparticles. Finally, outdoor demonstration manifests high easy-to-perform construction on-site, providing promising opportunity decentralized