Cicada wing-inspired solar transmittance enhancement and hydrophobicity design for graphene-based solar steam generation: A novel gas phase deposition approach

The severe light reflection phenomenon has become a critical challenge for the sufficient utilization of solar energy. For preventing the predation risk, cicada’s wings are gradually evolved into transparent morphology to preferably blend into the natural environment. The high solar transmittance in cicada wings is due to the presence of surface micro/nanostructures which avoids the large change of refractive index between air and wings. Herein, inspired by the high solar transmittance of cicada’s wings, an extremely-simple gaseous phase deposition with low heating temperature is developed to cover graphene film with methyl-modified silicon dioxide (CH3-SiO2) nanospheres that decelerate the refractive index reduction. The destructive interference effect of CH3-SiO2 nanospheres effectively increases the solar transmittance to promote the absorption and conversion of solar energy into heat by graphene nanosheets. As a result, compared to pure graphene film, CH3-SiO2 nanospheres covered graphene (SiO2-graphene) film presents a temperature increase of ∼6.3 °C with solar illumination of 1.0 kW/m2. After being combined with zwitterion-modified cotton fabric, a novel solar steam generation system mainly composed of SiO2-graphene film is prepared. Due to the hydrophobicity of CH3-SiO2 nanosphere and the hydration effect of zwitterionic polymer, the salt precipitation and oil fouling problems regarded as major challenges in solar desalination are simultaneously solved, thus achieving water evaporation rate near 1.40 kg/m2h at oily seawater environment. Most importantly, the solar transmittance enhancement and anti-reflection design inspired by cicada wings provide a valuable reference to promote the solar absorption capacity of other photo-thermal conversion materials.