Photothermal Conversion Material Derived from Used Cigarette Filters for Solar Steam Generation

Solar steam generation by photothermal materials has recently emerged as a new and feasible approach to effectively harvest solar energy in a variety of applications. This work reports an efficient heat localization material based on the renewable cellulose acetate cigarette filters and a reduced graphene oxide coating (RGO-CF) as the light-to-heat conversion layer for solar steam generation. RGO-CF possessed an aligned structure with superhydrophilic nature, lower thermal conductivity (0.0733 Wm-1 K-1 ), and broad light adsorption (≈100 %). These characteristics enable rapid water transportation and excellent light-to-heat conversion by the resulting RGO-CF with an energy conversion efficiency of 94 % under stimulated solar illumination (1 kW m-2 ), which demonstrates that RGO-CF is a promising photothermal conversion material for solar steam generation. Such strategy for preparation of photothermal materials not only reduces the fabrication cost but also provides a fundamental guidance for the practical application of renewable polymer resources from used cigarette filters.