Efficient and scalable solar energy harvesting for thermoelectric generation: a 3D construction of robust and anti-fouling graphene

As a sustainable manner of energy exploitation, direct solar harvesting for thermal-electric generation based on photothermal conversion is promising but still challenging with the development of highly efficient, scalable, and structure durable photothermal materials. Firstly, we introduce a soft and facile technology for porous graphene fabrication via laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) process. This photothermal material with unique structure has large surface areas for solar absorption. Furtherly, the resultant photothermal graphene promoted thermoelectric generator has been obtained and shows an outstanding combination of strong solar irradiation absorption (more than 97%), excellent photothermal conversion ability, and extraordinary anti-fouling performance (a large water contact angle of more than 150° and small water sliding angle of lower than 5°). A high output voltage of 144mV could also be obtained under one sun illumination (Model number of thermoelectric generators is TEC1-12710). And the highest output power of 222.1μWcm^-2 could also be calculated under one sun illumination. A robust and durable photothermal-electric generator in real-environmental is demonstrated, which shows a great potential of the photothermal materials applied in highly solar energy harvesting.