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3D‐Printed, All‐in‐One Evaporator for High‐Efficiency Solar Steam Generation under 1 Sun Illumination
Author(s) -
Li Yiju,
Gao Tingting,
Yang Zhi,
Chen Chaoji,
Luo Wei,
Song Jianwei,
Hitz Emily,
Jia Chao,
Zhou Yubing,
Liu Boyang,
Yang Bao,
Hu Liangbing
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201700981
Subject(s) - materials science , solar energy , evaporator , photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector , process engineering , thermal , electricity generation , optoelectronics , mechanical engineering , heat exchanger , electrical engineering , engineering , meteorology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
Using solar energy to generate steam is a clean and sustainable approach to addressing the issue of water shortage. The current challenge for solar steam generation is to develop easy‐to‐manufacture and scalable methods which can convert solar irradiation into exploitable thermal energy with high efficiency. Although various material and structure designs have been reported, high efficiency in solar steam generation usually can be achieved only at concentrated solar illumination. For the first time, 3D printing to construct an all‐in‐one evaporator with a concave structure for high‐efficiency solar steam generation under 1 sun illumination is used. The solar‐steam‐generation device has a high porosity (97.3%) and efficient broadband solar absorption (>97%). The 3D‐printed porous evaporator with intrinsic low thermal conductivity enables heat localization and effectively alleviates thermal dissipation to the bulk water. As a result, the 3D‐printed evaporator has a high solar steam efficiency of 85.6% under 1 sun illumination (1 kW m −2 ), which is among the best compared with other reported evaporators. The all‐in‐one structure design using the advanced 3D printing fabrication technique offers a new approach to solar energy harvesting for high‐efficiency steam generation.