Researchers at Rice University in Texas report on "Solar Generation Enabled
by Nanoparticles" in the American Chemical Society (ACS) Nano Journal.
The authors "show that this process can be used for solar-based direct steam generation, without the requirement of heating the liquid volume to the boiling point.
Submicrometer particles that can absorb light across the solar spectrum produce steam in a matter of seconds when dispersed in water and can achieve steam temperatures well above 100 °C in compact geometries."
Hi-Res PDF [4683 KB] version of article here -
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/nn304948h
HTML version here -
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/nn304948h
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Originally Posted by Neumann et. al ACS Nano
ABSTRACT
Solar illumination of broadly absorbing metal or carbon nanoparticles dispersed in a liquid produces vapor without the requirement of heating the fluid volume. When particles are dispersed in water at ambient temperature, energy is directed primarily to vaporization of water into steam, with a much smaller fraction resulting in heating of the fluid. Sunlight-illuminated particles can also drive H2O–ethanol distillation, yielding fractions significantly richer in ethanol content than simple thermal distillation. These phenomena can also enable important compact solar applications such as sterilization of waste and surgical instruments in resource-poor locations.
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