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Nano Research 2021, 14(4): 969-975 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3134-9
Research Article | Issue | Published: 17 October 2020

Tea stain-inspired solar energy harvesting polyphenolic nanocoatings with tunable absorption spectra

Show Author's Information Lu Yang1,§,  Yuan Zou1,§,  Wei Xia1,  Haotian Li1,  Xinyu He1,  Yi Zhou1,  Xianhu Liu2,  Chaoqun Zhang3,4,  Yiwen Li1( )
College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
National Engineering Research Center for Advanced Polymer Processing Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Key Laboratory for Biobased Materials and Energy of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Road, Guangzhou 510642, China
Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agricultural Science and Technology, 483 Wushan Road, Guangzhou 510642, China

§ Lu Yang and Yuan Zou contribute equally to this work.

Keywords:
metal-polyphenolic nanocoating, polymerization, light absorption, photothermal, solar desalination
Topics:
Biomimetics Copper compoundsIron compoundsLight absoptionMetal ionsMetalsNickel compoundsSolar energyZinc compounds
Cite this article:
Yang L, Zou Y, Xia W, et al. Tea stain-inspired solar energy harvesting polyphenolic nanocoatings with tunable absorption spectra. Nano Research, 2021, 14(4): 969-975. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3134-9
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Discovery and development of new sustainable photothermal materials with tunable light absorption spectra play a key role in solar energy harvesting and conversion. One possible solution to this quest is to check nature as a source of matters or inspiration. Inspired by the formation of tea stains, a unique class of dark stain materials generated by the interfacial reaction between tea polyphenols and metal substance, we reported the facile preparation and screening of a series of photothermal nanocoating layers via the metal ion (i.e. Cu(II),Fe(III), Ni(II), Zn(II)) promoted in situ polymerization of typical phenolic moieties of tea polyphenols (i.e., catechol and pyrogallol). It was found that those resulting metal-polyphenolic nanocoatings showed various promising features, such as high blackness and strong adhesion, excellent and tunable light absorption properties, good hydrophilicity and long-term stability. We further fabricated the photothermal composite devices by in situ formation of metal-polyphenolic nanocoatings on pristine silks for solar desalination, which demonstrated promising durable evaporation behaviors with excellent evaporation rates and steam generation efficiencies. We believe that this work could provide more opportunities towards new types of bio-inspired and sustainable photothermal nanomaterials for solar energy harvesting applications such as water desalination.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Tea stain-inspired solar energy harvesting polyphenolic nanocoatings with tunable absorption spectra

Show Author's information Lu Yang1,§, Yuan Zou1,§, Wei Xia1, Haotian Li1, Xinyu He1, Yi Zhou1, Xianhu Liu2, Chaoqun Zhang3,4, Yiwen Li1( )
College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
National Engineering Research Center for Advanced Polymer Processing Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Key Laboratory for Biobased Materials and Energy of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Road, Guangzhou 510642, China
Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agricultural Science and Technology, 483 Wushan Road, Guangzhou 510642, China

§ Lu Yang and Yuan Zou contribute equally to this work.

Abstract

Discovery and development of new sustainable photothermal materials with tunable light absorption spectra play a key role in solar energy harvesting and conversion. One possible solution to this quest is to check nature as a source of matters or inspiration. Inspired by the formation of tea stains, a unique class of dark stain materials generated by the interfacial reaction between tea polyphenols and metal substance, we reported the facile preparation and screening of a series of photothermal nanocoating layers via the metal ion (i.e. Cu(II),Fe(III), Ni(II), Zn(II)) promoted in situ polymerization of typical phenolic moieties of tea polyphenols (i.e., catechol and pyrogallol). It was found that those resulting metal-polyphenolic nanocoatings showed various promising features, such as high blackness and strong adhesion, excellent and tunable light absorption properties, good hydrophilicity and long-term stability. We further fabricated the photothermal composite devices by in situ formation of metal-polyphenolic nanocoatings on pristine silks for solar desalination, which demonstrated promising durable evaporation behaviors with excellent evaporation rates and steam generation efficiencies. We believe that this work could provide more opportunities towards new types of bio-inspired and sustainable photothermal nanomaterials for solar energy harvesting applications such as water desalination.

Keywords: metal-polyphenolic nanocoating, polymerization, light absorption, photothermal, solar desalination

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 18 August 2020
Revised: 13 September 2020
Accepted: 21 September 2020
Published: 17 October 2020
Issue date: April 2021

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21975167 and 21774079), the Program of the Science & Technology Department of Guangzhou, China (No. 201803020039), and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities.

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