Open-shell polymers reaching high photocatalysis and photothermal effect

Abstract

Through solar-driven evaporators, freshwater and electricity can be simultaneously obtained to realize high solar energy utilization rate. Here, we demonstrate a type of open-shell polymers (PFBP and PBBP) as high-performance photothermal material for solar-driven evaporator. Open-shell polymers with quinone resonance are provided with red shifted absorption spectrum and triplet transition, achieving a high-efficient photothermal conversion and resistance to photobleaching. At present, the evaporation rates of mainstream organic evaporators are usually below than 1.5 kg m⁻²h⁻¹. Open shell polymers exhibit excellent performance due to their unique structure and properties 3D solar-driven evaporators (3D-SDEs) employing PBBP as photothermal material achieved the best evaporation performance at 2 cm sagitta, the highest evaporation rate is 2.13 kg m⁻²h⁻¹ and vapour conversion efficiency is 97.0 % (deduct dark evaporation rate) which is one of the highest values recorded in organic solar-driven evaporators. Happily, the PBBP based 3D-SDE in natural environment also possess excellent evaporation performance. More exciting, both open-shell polymers display fine photocatalytic degradation ability, especially PBBP which can achieve an almost complete degradation of methyl blue within 150 min. This work confirm open-shell polymer is an effective strategy to develop novel photothermal and photocatalysis material to utilize solar energy solving the water scarcity.