CNTs/Wood Composite Nanogenerator for Producing Both Steam and Electricity

Solar steam generation, which utilizes solar heat to evaporate water, has been considered a promising technology to produce clean water. Meanwhile, the water evaporation process along the microchannels can be also utilized to generate electricity. Here, based on a piece of multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT)-modified woodblocks, we proposed a CNTs/wood composite nanogenerator to produce both water steam and electricity. This hybridized system can achieve a maximum solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency obtained in CNT wood of up to 77.4% under 1 sun illumination (1000 W m(-2)), while the electric power generated between the surface water and bulk water can reach 0.35 mW m(-2) in Fe-CNT HNG (under an external resistance of 10 k Omega) during water evaporation in deionized water. These experimental results provide a different strategy for the utilization of water and solar resources, demonstrating the potential for producing both steam and electricity under sunlight simultaneously.

Automated summary

The study explores a new method of generating electricity using carbon nanotube-modified woodblocks, which can simultaneously produce water steam and electricity. Experimental results show that this composite system has high efficiency in solar-to-vapor conversion and power generation under illumination conditions.