Abstract:
With the fast growth of population and increasing environmental problems, resources. The
shortage has drawn global concerns in recent years. Conversion of renewable energy
sources like solar energy to generate other resources such as could be a promising strategy
to solve the resources issues. Among them, interfacial solar steam generation arises to be
an attractive strategy to generate freshwater by utilizing only solar energy. Utilizing solar
energy to evaporate water is one of the greens and promising approaches in addressing the
issues of global freshwater shortage and water pollution. Conventional solar steam
generation systems usually involve bulk-water heating with low efficiency due to the
considerable thermal energy loss. Recently, interfacial solar evaporation systems using
floating evaporators to absorb heat at the air-water interface have received wide interest. A
low-cost, efficient, and durable solar absorber is vital for the development of solar steam
generation. This study focuses on photothermal materials for applications in solar-thermal
conversion for freshwater generation. TiO2 and carbon materials have gained extensive
research attention for solar steam generation owing to their non-toxic nature and
environmental friendliness. In this work, TiO2-carbon nanocomposites were synthesized
by hydrothermal method and employed as a solar absorber for enhancing water
evaporation. Raman spectroscopy and FTIR use for structural and vibrational studies of
TiO2-carbon nanocomposites.
