Liping Guo, Jiang Gong, Changyuan Song, Yueli Zhao, Bien Tan*, Qiang Zhao, Shangbin Jin*. Donor-acceptor charge migration system composed of superhydrophilic covalent triazine framework and carbon nanotube towards high performance solar thermal conversion. ACS Energy Letters (2020) Accept.

The intrinsic hydrophobicity and deficient light absorption of solar energy, the energy loss from the radiation relaxation of charges that decreases the solar-thermal conversion efficiency have severely hindered the application of conjugated polymers in solar steam generation. Here, the construction of a donor-acceptor system constituted by a superhydrophilic covalent triazine framework (CTF) and carbon nanotube (CNT) which can enhance the water extraction and supply was reported to effectively suppress the energy loss via controllable charge migration. The resulting donor-acceptor charge migration system could not only extend light harvesting, but also increase energy conversion efficiency by decreasing undesired radiation relaxation, and hence it delivers a high performance in solar steam generation with a rate of 1.59 Kg m-2 h-1 and a solar thermal conversion efficiency of 93.2% under one sun irradiation. This work provides a convenient strategy and new mechanism to improve the solar thermal con-version of the porous organic semiconductors.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.0c00394