MXene Ti3C2: An Effective 2D Light-to-Heat Conversion Material.
MXene, a new series of 2D material, has been steadily advancing its applications to a variety of fields, such as catalysis, supercapacitor, molecular separation, electromagnetic wave interference shielding. This work reports a carefully designed aqueous droplet light heating system along with a thorough mathematical procedure, which combined leads to a precise determination of internal light-to-heat conversion efficiency of a variety of nanomaterials. The internal light-to-heat conversion efficiency of MXene, more specifically Ti3C2, was measured to be 100%, indicating a perfect energy conversion. Furthermore, a self-floating MXene thin membrane was prepared by simple vacuum filtration and the membrane, in the presence of a rationally chosen heat barrier, produced a light-to-water-evaporation efficiency of 84% under one sun irradiation, which is among the state of art energy efficiency for similar photothermal evaporation system. The outstanding internal light-to-heat conversion efficiency and great light-to-water evaporation efficiency reported in this work suggest that MXene is a very promising light-to-heat conversion material and thus deserves more research attention toward practical applications.
Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
Renyuan
R
Li
Key Laboratory of Materials Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
Lianbin
0000-0002-8548-1506
L
Zhang
Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
Le
L
Shi
Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
Peng
0000-0003-0856-0865
P
Wang
MXene; Ti3C2; light-to-heat conversion; photothermal; water evaporation