Hierarchical Graphene Foam for Efficient Omnidirectional Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion

Huaying Ren; Miao Tang; Baolu Guan; Kexin Wang; Jiawei Yang; Feifan Wang; Mingzhan Wang; Jingyuan Shan; Zhaolong Chen; Di Wei; Hailin Peng; Zhongfan Liu

doi:10.1002/adma.201702590

Hierarchical Graphene Foam for Efficient Omnidirectional Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion

Adv Mater. 2017 Oct;29(38). doi: 10.1002/adma.201702590. Epub 2017 Aug 18.

Authors

Huaying Ren^{1

2}, Miao Tang¹, Baolu Guan³, Kexin Wang¹, Jiawei Yang³, Feifan Wang¹, Mingzhan Wang¹, Jingyuan Shan^{1

2}, Zhaolong Chen¹, Di Wei⁴, Hailin Peng¹, Zhongfan Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
² Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
³ Key Laboratory of Opto-Electronics Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Electronic Science and Technology, Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100022, P. R. China.
⁴ Beijing Graphene Institute, Beijing, 100094, P. R. China.

PMID: 28833544
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201702590

Abstract

Efficient solar-thermal energy conversion is essential for the harvesting and transformation of abundant solar energy, leading to the exploration and design of efficient solar-thermal materials. Carbon-based materials, especially graphene, have the advantages of broadband absorption and excellent photothermal properties, and hold promise for solar-thermal energy conversion. However, to date, graphene-based solar-thermal materials with superior omnidirectional light harvesting performances remain elusive. Herein, hierarchical graphene foam (h-G foam) with continuous porosity grown via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is reported, showing dramatic enhancement of broadband and omnidirectional absorption of sunlight, which thereby can enable a considerable elevation of temperature. Used as a heating material, the external solar-thermal energy conversion efficiency of the h-G foam impressively reaches up to ≈93.4%, and the solar-vapor conversion efficiency exceeds 90% for seawater desalination with high endurance.

Keywords: desalination; graphene; hierarchical foams; solar-thermal conversion.