Recentadvancesincarbon‐basedmaterials for solar‐driven interfacial photothermal conversion water evaporation:Assemblies,structures,applications,and prospective

The shortage of fresh water in the world has brought upon a serious crisis to human health and economic development.Solar‐driven interfacial photothermal conversion water evaporation including evaporating seawater,lake water,or river water has been recognized as an environmentally friendly process for obtaining clean water in a low‐cost way.However,water transport is restricted by itself by solar energy absorption capacity's limits,especially for finite evaporation rates and insufficient working life.Therefore,it is important to seek photothermal conversion materials that can efficiently absorb solar energy and reasonably design solar‐driven interfacial photothermal conversion water evaporation devices.This paper reviews the research progress of carbon‐based photothermal conversion materials and the mechanism for solar‐driven interfacial photothermal conversion water evaporation,as well as the summary of the design and development of the devices.Based on the research progress and achievements of photothermal conversion materials and devices in the fields of seawater desalination and photothermal electric energy generation in recent years,the challenges and opportunities faced by carbon‐based photothermal conversion materials and devices are discussed.The prospect of the practical application of solar‐driven interfacial photothermal conversion evaporation technology is foreseen,and theoretical guidance is provided for the further development of this technology.

Electrochemical reduction of CO_2 to CO using graphene oxide/carbon nanotube electrode in ionic liquid/acetonitrile system

Electrochemical reduction of CO_2 to CO is an interesting topic. In this work, we prepared metal-free electrodes by depositing graphene oxide(GO), multi-walled carbon nanotube(MWCNT), and GO/MWCNT composites on carbon paper(CP) using electrophoretic deposition(EPD) method. The electrodes were characterized by different methods, such as X-ray diffraction(XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS). The electrochemical reduction of CO_2 to CO was conducted on the electrodes in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate([Bmim]BF4)/acetonitrile(Me CN) electrolyte, and the composition of the electrolyte influenced the reaction significantly. It was demonstrated that GO/MWCNT-CP electrode was very effective for the reaction in IL(90 wt%)/Me CN binary mixture, the Faradaic efficiency of CO and current density were even higher than those on Au and Ag electrodes in the same electrolyte.