{"title":"Dynamic Water Microskin Induced by Photothermally Responsive Interpenetrating Hydrogel Networks for High-Performance Light-Tracking Water Evaporation","authors":"Liang Tian, Lihua Han, Fang Wang, Haixia Shen, Qing Li, Liangliang Zhu, Su Chen","doi":"10.1002/aenm.202404117","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Solar-driven interfacial water evaporation is attracting increasing attention as a promising environmentally-friendly solution to freshwater scarcity. It has been proven that a thin water layer on photothermal materials can prevent solar energy from invalidly heating the excess water to enhance the evaporation rate. However, the current water layers are usually formed on inelastic materials via confined capillarity, which are static and uncontrollable. Herein, we propose a flexible hydrogel-based photothermal conversion material with thermal responsiveness by facile frontal polymerization, which can generate a unique dynamic water microskin (DWMS) during the solar evaporation process. The copolymerized hydrogel, introduced by the second polymeric poly(vinyl alcohol) network and thermally responsive poly(<i>N</i>-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), exhibits reinforced mechanical strength and photothermally triggers reversible shrinking/swelling cycles that enable a thin water layer (≈32 µm) to balance the feedwater supply and photothermic energy input dynamically. As a result, a stable superior vaporization rate of 8.7 kg m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> is achieved based on a cylindrical hydrogel with 6 cm height under 1 sun. Moreover, the simultaneous responsive bending allows efficient omnidirectional solar evaporation by light-tracking to ensure maximum perpendicular solar absorption, which provides an alternative strategy for durable high-efficiency solar evaporators for effective thermal management and solar utilization.","PeriodicalId":111,"journal":{"name":"Advanced Energy Materials","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":24.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Advanced Energy Materials","FirstCategoryId":"88","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202404117","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Solar-driven interfacial water evaporation is attracting increasing attention as a promising environmentally-friendly solution to freshwater scarcity. It has been proven that a thin water layer on photothermal materials can prevent solar energy from invalidly heating the excess water to enhance the evaporation rate. However, the current water layers are usually formed on inelastic materials via confined capillarity, which are static and uncontrollable. Herein, we propose a flexible hydrogel-based photothermal conversion material with thermal responsiveness by facile frontal polymerization, which can generate a unique dynamic water microskin (DWMS) during the solar evaporation process. The copolymerized hydrogel, introduced by the second polymeric poly(vinyl alcohol) network and thermally responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), exhibits reinforced mechanical strength and photothermally triggers reversible shrinking/swelling cycles that enable a thin water layer (≈32 µm) to balance the feedwater supply and photothermic energy input dynamically. As a result, a stable superior vaporization rate of 8.7 kg m−2 h−1 is achieved based on a cylindrical hydrogel with 6 cm height under 1 sun. Moreover, the simultaneous responsive bending allows efficient omnidirectional solar evaporation by light-tracking to ensure maximum perpendicular solar absorption, which provides an alternative strategy for durable high-efficiency solar evaporators for effective thermal management and solar utilization.
期刊介绍:
Established in 2011, Advanced Energy Materials is an international, interdisciplinary, English-language journal that focuses on materials used in energy harvesting, conversion, and storage. It is regarded as a top-quality journal alongside Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, and Small.
With a 2022 Impact Factor of 27.8, Advanced Energy Materials is considered a prime source for the best energy-related research. The journal covers a wide range of topics in energy-related research, including organic and inorganic photovoltaics, batteries and supercapacitors, fuel cells, hydrogen generation and storage, thermoelectrics, water splitting and photocatalysis, solar fuels and thermosolar power, magnetocalorics, and piezoelectronics.
The readership of Advanced Energy Materials includes materials scientists, chemists, physicists, and engineers in both academia and industry. The journal is indexed in various databases and collections, such as Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database, FIZ Karlsruhe, INSPEC (IET), Science Citation Index Expanded, Technology Collection, and Web of Science, among others.