4.7 Article

Chitin-Derived Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanopaper with Subwavelength Nanoporous Structures for Solar Thermal Heating

Journal

NANOMATERIALS
Volume 13, Issue 9, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/nano13091480

Keywords

chitin nanofiber; biomass-derived carbon; subwavelength nanoporous structures; nitrogen-doped carbon; solar thermal heating

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In this study, the researchers produced chitin nanopaper with subwavelength nanoporous structures by controlling the drying and carbonization process. The carbonized chitin nanopaper exhibited improved solar absorption and solar thermal heating performance, highlighting its potential as an excellent solar thermal material. The nitrogen-doped carbon structures and high morphological stability of chitin nanofibers contributed to the enhanced solar absorption.
Sustainable biomass-derived carbons have attracted research interest because of their ability to effectively absorb and convert solar light to thermal energy, a phenomenon known as solar thermal heating. Although their carbon-based molecular and nanoporous structures should be customized to achieve enhanced solar thermal heating performance, such customization has insufficiently progressed. In this study, we transformed a chitin nanofiber/water dispersion into paper, referred to as chitin nanopaper, with subwavelength nanoporous structures by spatially controlled drying, followed by temperature-controlled carbonization without any pretreatment to customize the carbon-based molecular structures. The optimal carbonization temperature for enhancing the solar absorption and solar thermal heating performance of the chitin nanopaper was determined to be 400 ?. Furthermore, we observed that the nitrogen component, which afforded nitrogen-doped carbon structures, and the high morphological stability of chitin nanofibers against carbonization, which maintained subwavelength nanoporous structures even after carbonization, contributed to the improved solar absorption of the carbonized chitin nanopaper. The carbonized chitin nanopaper exhibited a higher solar thermal heating performance than the carbonized cellulose nanopaper and commercial nanocarbon materials, thus demonstrating significant potential as an excellent solar thermal material.

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