New Spongelike Structure Converts Solar Energy Into Steam.
21st July 2014
The structure — a layer of graphite flakes and an underlying carbon foam — is a porous, insulating material structure that floats on water. When sunlight hits the structure’s surface, it creates a hotspot in the graphite, drawing water up through the material’s pores, where it evaporates as steam. The brighter the light, the more steam is generated.
The new material is able to convert 85 percent of incoming solar energy into steam — a significant improvement over recent approaches to solar-powered steam generation. What’s more, the setup loses very little heat in the process, and can produce steam at relatively low solar intensity. This would mean that, if scaled up, the setup would likely not require complex, costly systems to highly concentrate sunlight.
July 23rd, 2014 at 11:59
When I saw “spongelike”, I thought this was about Boehner.
July 24th, 2014 at 04:12
It also said “converts solar energy into steam” and that’s more useful than Boehner’s ever been on his best day.