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High‐Performance Large‐Scale Solar Steam Generation with Nanolayers of Reusable Biomimetic Nanoparticles
Author(s) -
Liu Changxu,
Huang Jianfeng,
Hsiung ChiaEn,
Tian Yi,
Wang Jianjian,
Han Yu,
Fratalocchi Andrea
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced sustainable systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.499
H-Index - 24
ISSN - 2366-7486
DOI - 10.1002/adsu.201600013
Subject(s) - materials science , nanomaterials , nanoparticle , renewable energy , thermal , nanotechnology , seawater , environmental science , process engineering , chemical engineering , meteorology , engineering , physics , electrical engineering , oceanography , geology
The harvesting of solar radiation for steam generation has drawn wide attention as a future sustainable technology for the renewable production of clean water worldwide. Here, a new super‐dark metasurface of 200 nm thickness is presented, which reaches a solar thermal efficiency of 87% when exposed to an intensity of only 2.3 sun, maintaining a stable efficiency of 90% at higher solar intensities. The metasurface is composed of extremely robust nanoparticles, which are up to 98% recyclable and can be produced on massively large scales by wet chemistry. By employing such reusable nanoparticles on an area of 1 m 2 , 1.2 kg of seawater can be purified within only 1 h under natural sunshine. With such excellent performances, this nanomaterial can open new applications of high‐performance solar steam.