Solar steam generation and desalination using ultra-broadband absorption in plasmonic alumina nanowire haze structure-graphene oxide-gold nanoparticle composite

Solar steam generation is a promising solar energy harvesting technology to address the global clean energy and water deficiency cost-effectively. In this work, we present a compact plasmonic nanostructure-nanoparticle composite based on haze/GO-rGO/Au enabling multiple purposes such as broadband solar absorption, solar steam generation, and solar desalination. The graphene oxide-reduced GO (GO-rGO) combination allows broadband optical absorption, and the presence of 5 nm Au nanoparticles creates high-density localized hotspots for enhanced photothermal effect as evidenced through Raman signal enhancement studies. Anodized aluminum oxide-based haze nanostructures provide maximum light interaction volume through multiple nanogaps and porosity through vertically aligned nanowires of 20-26 nm width and 5-10 μm depth for water channelization. The haze sample coated with GO-rGO/Au shows high solar absorbance of 92.5% over the 300-2500 nm wavelength range covering the whole solar spectrum (ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared). We have achieved 50 and 71.1% of solar-to-thermal conversion efficiencies in a single-layer microscale sample for saline and freshwater, respectively, with a maximum surface temperature of 95.7 °C. The efficiencies increase to 64 and 77% for two layers of the sample at 5 suns (5 kW m^-2) illumination.