Highly Efficient Solar Steam Generators Based on Multicore@Shell Nanostructured Aerogels of Carbon and Silica as the Light AbsorberHeat Insulator

摘要

Herein, highly efficient, low-cost, and lightweight solar steam generation systemsare fabricated using engineered carbon and silica-based porous nanostructureswith 3D networks as light absorber and heat insulator, respectively. In thisregard, systems with three different designs are considered to localize the heatefficiently through harvesting more photons and reducing heat losses. Thefabricated systems are multilayered structures including polymeric foam and feltas the substrate and water-carrier medium, respectively. Highly porous nanostructuredparticles of carbon aerogel (CA) as an absorber, silica aerogel (SiA) as asuperinsulator, and multicore@shell aerogel of CA and SiA (CA core-SiA shell)as both absorber and insulator are synthesized. The used architectures are doublelayered (substrate covered by CA), triple layered (substrate covered by a layer ofCA and a layer of SiA), and multicore@shell (substrate covered by CA-SiAmulticore@shell aerogel). Using the double-layered system, an efficiency of 83%corresponding to 1.2 kgm~(-2) h~(-1) water evaporation rate is achieved, which isenhanced to 90% in the triple-layered system, where the SiA superinsulator isadded. Remarkably, when the multicore@shell absorberinsulator is used, theefficiency increments of 27% and 16% are achieved compared with the doublelayeredand triple-layered ones with the same amount of absorber, respectively.