Numerical Study on a Novel Solar-Driven Interface Evaporation Device Combined with Thermoelectric Material

In the continuous development of solar energy, solar-driven evaporation has attracted much attention due to its huge industrial potential. In recent years, many kinds of solar-driven interface evaporation devices have been proposed by confining the conversion of solar-thermal energy to the air/liquid interface. However, it can't work during night time and thus the evaporation efficiency is still limited. In this work, we discussed the possibility of combining thermoelectric technology with interface evaporation and proposed a novel solar-driven interface evaporation device combined with thermoelectric material. The design of the key components including thermoelectric structures and evaporation structures are introduced. A one-dimensional numerical model is developed to evaluate the evaporation performance of the novel design. We also compare the evaporation performance of the novel design with the traditional solar-driven interface evaporation device.