Solar-vapor generation with 69% energy conversion efficiency in hollow-mesoporous plasmonic nanoshells

Harnessing solar energy at a high efficiency and a low cost remains challenging. The advent of nanotechnology enabled new solar-thermal techniques where plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) in a volumetric dispersion are used to generate steam locally without a significant heat loss into the entire bulk, t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2017 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC) p. 1
Main Authors Pu, Ye, Zielinski, Marcin S., Choi, Jae-Woo, La Grange, Thomas, Modestino, Miguel, Hashemi, Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, Birkhold, Susanne, Hubbell, Jeffrey A., Psaltis, Demetri
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.06.2017
Subjects
Biomedical engineering
Electron microscopy
Life sciences
Optical microscopy
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Summary:Harnessing solar energy at a high efficiency and a low cost remains challenging. The advent of nanotechnology enabled new solar-thermal techniques where plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) in a volumetric dispersion are used to generate steam locally without a significant heat loss into the entire bulk, thereby alleviating the need for an extensive thermal insulation. Nanoparticle-assisted solar-vapor generation was recently demonstrated using SiO 2 /Au core/shell NPs at 1000× solar irradiance at air mass (AM) 1.5, showing an energy conversion efficiency of 24% [1]. Here, we achieve solar-vapor generation at 69% efficiency at 10× AM 1.5 by combining plasmonics with mesoporous thermal cavities, exploiting the extended active surface and nearly neutral buoyancy [Fig. 1(a)].
DOI:10.1109/CLEOE-EQEC.2017.8087674