Synthesis and Characterization of Metal Oxide Based Photothermal Material for Interfacial Evaporation

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.