Biomimetic urchin-like structure of Re/ReS2/ZnS/NDC for high performance photothermal water evaporation and electricity generation

The world energy crisis is a significant challenge we facing today. To alleviate this problem, the idea of the further development and utilization of solar energy has been proposed. The application of solar energy could not only reduce human’s dependence on traditional fossil fuels but also mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Photothermal materials, which can directly convert light into heat, are of great practical importance in the field of desalination and solar thermoelectric generators. Consequently, it is of great significance to develop novel photothermal material which can efficiently absorb solar radiation of wide spectrum and convert it into heat energy. Inspired by the light-sensitive structure of sea urchins, in this work we propose the preparation of a novel photothermal material Re/ReS 2 /ZnS/NDC with layered heterostructure. This material exhibits outstanding wide-band absorption capability and achieves a high photothermal conversion efficiency of 82.33 %. Under 1 Sun irradiation, Re/ReS 2 /ZnS/NDC/PVA could achieve the water evaporation rate of 3.15 kg·m −2 ·h −1 and the power density of 2.40 W·m −2 in the photothermal evaporation and photothermal-electric conversion experiments. This work provides a biomimetic design approach for synthesizing novel and efficient photothermal materials.