TY - JOUR
T1 - Full-Spectrum Solar Harvesting and Desalination Enabled by Supra-Nano Amorphous Ruthenium Dioxide – Mineral Composites
AU - Long, Yunchen
AU - Mao, Zhengyi
AU - Li, Bowen
AU - Hu, Xiujuan
AU - Tang, Xinxue
AU - Liu, Yuanchao
AU - Liu, Jia Hua
AU - Li, Hongkun
AU - Wang, Chong
AU - Yue, Hong
AU - Ou, Weihui
AU - Ho, Johnny Chung Yin
AU - Lu, Jian
AU - Li, Yang Yang
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2026/2/12
Y1 - 2026/2/12
N2 - Breaking crystalline symmetry reveals new photonic capabilities for solar-driven technologies. Herein, a mineral-based supra-nano amorphous ruthenium dioxide composite (a-Ru0.5-AM) is constructed. Benefiting from a defect-mediated photon-capturing mechanism in amorphous ruthenium dioxide, a-Ru0.5-AM effectively overcomes the near-infrared absorption limitations of rutile-phase ruthenium dioxide (r-Ru), achieving an average absorption of 97% over the entire solar spectrum. Meanwhile, under one sun illumination, a-Ru0.5-AM reaches a mean steady-state temperature of 87.91 ± 0.32 °C, and exhibits a thermal buffering effect conducive to efficient thermal confinement. In addition, surface functionalization significantly enhances the utilization efficiency of ruthenium—at equivalent Ru content, the bulk volume of a-Ru0.5-AM is ≈10 times larger than that of r-Ru. The integrated a-Ru0.5-AM evaporator shows an evaporation rate of 3.37 kg m−2 h−1 under one sun, with a photothermal conversion efficiency of 97.54%, while showing excellent salt-resistance, long-term stability, multifunctional water purification capability, and outstanding biocompatibility, making it suitable for diverse applications, including ecologically sensitive areas. Overall, this study endows conventional Ru-based materials with novel photothermal functions through defect engineering and surface functionalization, providing a new material design strategy and theoretical basis for applying platinum-group metals in solar steam generation, seawater desalination, and other clean water technologies.
AB - Breaking crystalline symmetry reveals new photonic capabilities for solar-driven technologies. Herein, a mineral-based supra-nano amorphous ruthenium dioxide composite (a-Ru0.5-AM) is constructed. Benefiting from a defect-mediated photon-capturing mechanism in amorphous ruthenium dioxide, a-Ru0.5-AM effectively overcomes the near-infrared absorption limitations of rutile-phase ruthenium dioxide (r-Ru), achieving an average absorption of 97% over the entire solar spectrum. Meanwhile, under one sun illumination, a-Ru0.5-AM reaches a mean steady-state temperature of 87.91 ± 0.32 °C, and exhibits a thermal buffering effect conducive to efficient thermal confinement. In addition, surface functionalization significantly enhances the utilization efficiency of ruthenium—at equivalent Ru content, the bulk volume of a-Ru0.5-AM is ≈10 times larger than that of r-Ru. The integrated a-Ru0.5-AM evaporator shows an evaporation rate of 3.37 kg m−2 h−1 under one sun, with a photothermal conversion efficiency of 97.54%, while showing excellent salt-resistance, long-term stability, multifunctional water purification capability, and outstanding biocompatibility, making it suitable for diverse applications, including ecologically sensitive areas. Overall, this study endows conventional Ru-based materials with novel photothermal functions through defect engineering and surface functionalization, providing a new material design strategy and theoretical basis for applying platinum-group metals in solar steam generation, seawater desalination, and other clean water technologies.
KW - amorphous structures
KW - nanocomposites
KW - platinum-group metals
KW - solar-driven desalination
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105016210995
U2 - 10.1002/adfm.202517313
DO - 10.1002/adfm.202517313
M3 - 文章
AN - SCOPUS:105016210995
SN - 1616-301X
VL - 36
JO - Advanced Functional Materials
JF - Advanced Functional Materials
IS - 13
M1 - e17313
ER -