Bioinspired Photo-Thermal Catalytic System Using Covalent Organic Framework-Based Aerogel for Synchronous Seawater...

Efficient utilization of solar energy is widely regarded as a crucial solution to addressing the energy crisis and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Coupling photothermal and photochemical conversion can effectively improve solar energy utilization yet remains challenging. Here, inspired by the photosynthesis system in green plants, we report herein an artificial solar energy converter (ASEC) composed of light-harvesting units as solar collector and oriented ionic hydrophilic channels as reactors and transporters. Based on such architecture, the obtained ASEC (namely ASEC-NJFU-1) can efficiently realize parallel production of freshwater and H₂O₂ from natural seawater under natural light. The total solar energy conversion (SEC) of ASEC-NJFU-1 reaches up to 8047 kJ m^-2 h^-1, corresponding to production rates of freshwater and H₂O₂ are 3.56 kg m^-2-1 h^-1 and 19 mM m^-2 h^-1, respectively, which is a record-high value among all photothermal-photocatalytic systems reported to date. Mechanism investigation of combining spectrum and experimental studies indicated that the high SEC performance for ASEC-NJFU-1 was attributed to the presence of plant bioinspired architecture with carbon nanotubes as solar-harvestor and COF-based oriented aerogel as reactors and transporters. Our work thus establishes a novel artificial photosynthesis system for highly efficient solar energy utilization.