Plasmonic Wood for High‐Efficiency Solar Steam Generation |
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| Authors: | Mingwei Zhu Yiju Li Fengjuan Chen Xueyi Zhu Jiaqi Dai Yongfeng Li Zhi Yang Xuejun Yan Jianwei Song Yanbin Wang Emily Hitz Wei Luo Minhui Lu Bao Yang Liangbing Hu |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA;2. National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA |
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| Abstract: | Plasmonic metal nanoparticles are a category of plasmonic materials that can efficiently convert light into heat under illumination, which can be applied in the field of solar steam generation. Here, this study designs a novel type of plasmonic material, which is made by uniformly decorating fine metal nanoparticles into the 3D mesoporous matrix of natural wood (plasmonic wood). The plasmonic wood exhibits high light absorption ability (≈99%) over a broad wavelength range from 200 to 2500 nm due to the plasmonic effect of metal nanoparticles and the waveguide effect of microchannels in the wood matrix. The 3D mesoporous wood with numerous low‐tortuosity microchannels and nanochannels can transport water up from the bottom of the device effectively due to the capillary effect. As a result, the 3D aligned porous architecture can achieve a high solar conversion efficiency of 85% under ten‐sun illumination (10 kW m?2). The plasmonic wood also exhibits superior stability for solar steam generation, without any degradation after being evaluated for 144 h. Its high conversion efficiency and excellent cycling stability demonstrate the potential of newly developed plasmonic wood to solar energy‐based water desalination. |
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| Keywords: | high absorption natural wood plasmonic solar energy solar steam generation |
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