Vapor condensation plays a crucial role in solar water-purification technologies. Conventional condensers in solar water-purification systems do not provide sufficient cooling power for vapor condensation, limiting the water production rate to 0.4 L m^-2 hour^-1. On the other hand, radiative dew condensation, a technique used by existing radiative dew condensers, only works at nighttime and is incompatible with solar water-purification technologies. Here, we develop daytime radiative condensers that reflect almost all solar radiation, and can thus create dew water even in direct sunlight. Compared to stateof- art condensers, our daytime radiative condenser doubles the production of purified water over a 24-hour period.

Date Published: 9 September 2019
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 11121, New Concepts in Solar and Thermal Radiation Conversion II, 1112107 (9 September 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2525125

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 11121:
New Concepts in Solar and Thermal Radiation Conversion II
Jeremy N. Munday; Peter Bermel, Editor(s)