Functionalized carbon materials for efficient solar steam and electricity generation

A low-cost, reusable, efficient evaporation system, composed of functionalized carbon black (FCB), has been developed for solar steam and electricity generation. The high evaporation efficiency of 85% under one sun illumination results from the specially designed structures, including FCB as a broadband light absorbing material, a porous hydrophilic mixed cellulose esters (MCE) membrane as a substrate, an airlaid paper as a water path, and a polystyrene foam (PSF) as a thermal insulation. The FCB/MCE film is used as an efficient sunlight absorber (>96%), which is connected by polyethylenimine (PEI). Cycling tests demonstrate that the evaporation system still maintains a stable performance over 14 cycles under the same illumination conditions. The evaporation system can be used not only for preparing clean and pure water but also for solar desalination. More importantly, the evaporation system from carbon materials can reliably generate a sustained voltage of 5 mV at a light density of 1 kWm−2, and it enhances with the increase of the light density.