A water supply tunable bilayer evaporator for high-quality solar vapor generation

Interfacial heating is the most obvious feature that distinguishes the novel solar driven interfacial heating from the traditional solar heating technology, and it is also a key factor in promoting solar energy utilization and vapor generation performance. However, the inherent trade-off between water supply and the interfacial heating performance of photothermal materials has rarely been investigated. Herein, an all-in-one designed bilayer evaporator consisting of a top solar absorber (Fe3O4@PDA-SA) and a bottom water transport layer (SA) is reported. This bilayer structured aerogel can provide good thermal insulation, effective water transmission channels, and reliable light absorbance, and perform well as a high-quality solar steam evaporator with the evaporation rate of approximately 1.517 kg m(-2) h(-1) and the evaporation efficiency of approximately 98.27% under 1 kW m(-2) solar illumination. Most importantly, we can control the pore size of the bottom layer by a simple free water evaporation method, so as to manipulate the water transport capacity of materials. There is flexibility to change the water content of the light-absorbing structure and further explore the influence of water supply on the interfacial heating performance of the evaporator, which provides more possibilities for the design and preparation of high-quality solar steam evaporators.

Automated summary

The study presents a bilayer evaporator that combines good thermal insulation, effective water transmission channels, and reliable light absorbance. By controlling the pore size of the bottom layer, the water transport capacity of the material can be manipulated, allowing for further exploration of the influence of water supply on the evaporator's performance.