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Flexible plasmonic cellulose papers for broadband absorption and efficient solar steam generation

柔性等离激元纤维素纸用于宽谱光吸收和高效太阳能蒸汽转化

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Abstract

Plasmonic solar absorber holds great potential in solar-powered steam generation due to its resonant absorption, rapid photo-to-heat conversion, and localized heating impact. However, expanding the absorption bandwidth of plasmonic nanoparticles is challenging. Here, we produce flexible plasmonic cellulose papers (PCPs) with broadband absorption by filling the nanogaps (between nanofibrils) of commercially available cellulose papers (CPs) with plasmonic nanoparticles. A nanoconfinement strategy is employed for the fast and easy-to-scale-up synthesis of Ag- and Cu-based PCPs. In particular, Ag-CP exhibits a broadband solar absorption efficiency of up to 93.7% at a spectrum range of 250–2500 nm and a solar-to-thermal efficiency of 85.2% under 1 kW m−2 irradiation (1 sun). The nanoconfinement effect serves as a simple and flexible platform to regulate the particle size and interspace and reduce the aggregation. By combining the analysis of structure-regulated absorption behaviors with theoretical simulations, we conclude that the unique microstructure tailors the interparticle coupling effect, the predominant cause of the strong broadband plasmonic absorption. Our work presents a nanoconfinement strategy to tune solar absorption and demonstrates an appealing plasmonic solar absorber.

摘要

要等离激元吸光材料因具有强共振吸收、 快速光热转换和局部加热效应, 在太阳能水蒸发领域具有巨大的应用潜力. 但拓宽等离激元纳米颗粒的吸收带宽目前仍面临不小的挑战. 本文中, 我们通过将等离激元金属纳米颗粒限域合成到市面上常见的纤维素纸(CP)的纳米间隙中, 制备出了具有宽谱光吸收的柔性等离激元纤维素纸(PCP). 利用源于自然的纳米限域效应, 可快速且大规模地合成银(Ag)和铜(Cu)基PCP. 其中, Ag-CP 在250–2500 nm光谱范围内表现出93.7%的宽带光吸收效率, 在1 kW m−2 (1 sun)辐照下进行太阳能水蒸发测试, 太阳能光热转化效率为85.2%. 基于自然构型的纳米限域合成可以作为一个简单便利的方法调节金属纳米颗粒的大小和相互之间的间隙并防止其团聚. 通过将吸光材料结构调控与理论模拟结合分析, 我们证明了纤维素中天然的独特微观结构对金属纳米颗粒间耦合效应的调控, 是PCPs表现出强宽带等离激元光吸收的主要原因. 本文提出了一种利用自然构型的纳米限域效应调节光吸收效率的策略, 并开发了一种具有实际应用前景的等离激元光吸收材料.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51971133, 51902200, 52071213, 32000981 and 52072241), Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (18JC1410500, 19ZR1425300 and 19ZR1425100), the National High-Level Talent Program for Young Scholars, Shenzhen Science and Technology Research Funding (JCYJ20190806170011328), China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX20190352), and Guangdong Province Fundamental Research Funds (2019A1515111209). Dong C thanks Prof. Ruibin Wang (IAC of SJTU) for helpful characterizations and discussions. The authors also acknowledge the Instrumental Analysis Center of SJTU.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Changlin Dong  (董昌林), Yang Yuan  (袁洋), Jinghan Li  (李婧涵), Qingtong Wang  (王庆通), Chenxin Zhou  (周陈鑫), Ashfaq Ahmad, Cuiping Guo  (郭萃萍), Wang Zhang  (张旺), Qinglei Liu  (刘庆雷), Jiajun Gu  (顾佳俊), Fang Song  (宋钫) & Di Zhang  (张荻)

  2. Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Guofen Song  (宋国芬)

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  1. Changlin Dong  (董昌林)
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  2. Yang Yuan  (袁洋)
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  3. Guofen Song  (宋国芬)
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Contributions

Author contributions Dong C, Yuan Y, Gu J, Song F, and Zhang D conceptualized the study and designed the experiments. Dong C and Yuan Y carried out most of the materials synthesis and characterization, and the evaluation of performance. Song G, Li J, Wang Q, Zhou C, Ahmad A, Guo C, Zhang W, and Liu Q carried out some characterizations and offered helpful discussion. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jiajun Gu  (顾佳俊) or Fang Song  (宋钫).

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Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Experimental details and supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Changlin Dong is currently a PhD candidate and a member of Prof. Di Zhang and Prof. Fang Song’s group at the State Key Lab of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). He worked as a research assistant in Prof. Xinliang Feng’s group at TU Dresden in Germany from 2017 to 2018. His research focuses on solar-energy conversion materials and their applications.

Yang Yuan received his BE degree (2014) from Nanjing University and PhD degree (2020) in materials science & engineering from SJTU, China. His research interests include solar-energy steam generation and integrated device fabrication.

Jiajun Gu received his BE degree (1996) and PhD degree (2005) in materials science & engineering from SJTU, China. He is presently a professor of materials science at SJTU. His research interests mainly focus on bioinspired functional materials and solutions, either in the design of materials or in mechanism studies.

Fang Song obtained his BE degree (2006) and his PhD degree (2012) in materials science & engineering from SJTU. Shortly thereafter, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Xile Hu’s group at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland until 2018. He is currently an associate professor at SJTU. His research interests include electrocatalysts and morphogenetic materials and devices for energy conversion and storage.

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Dong, C., Yuan, Y., Song, G. et al. Flexible plasmonic cellulose papers for broadband absorption and efficient solar steam generation. Sci. China Mater. 66, 1097–1105 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-022-2238-6

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