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Accepted manuscript
Embargo End Date:
2022-08-29
Type
ArticleAuthors
Tu, Shao Bo
Xu, Lujia

El Demellawi, Jehad K.

Liang, Hanfeng

Xu, Xiangming
Lopatin, Sergei
De Wolf, Stefaan

Zhang, Xixiang

Alshareef, Husam N.

KAUST Department
Electron MicroscopyFunctional Nanomaterials and Devices Research Group
KAUST Solar Center (KSC)
Material Science and Engineering
Material Science and Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
KAUST Grant Number
OSR-2016-CRG5-2977Date
2020-08-15Online Publication Date
2020-08-15Print Publication Date
2020-11Embargo End Date
2022-08-29Submitted Date
2020-06-28Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/665023
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We report a novel flexible solar tracking system based on a photothermal-thermomechanical (PT-TM) actuator comprised of Ti3C2Tx MXene and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) bilayer. The actuation function of the proposed device originates from photothermal and surface plasmon-assisted effects in MXenes, coupled with thermomechanical deformation of in-plane aligned PVDF polymer. Two types of solar tracking modes are evaluated based on the experimental deformation behavior of the PT-TM actuator. We find that the uniaxial East-West solar tracking option increases the overall energy intensity reaching the solar module by over 30%, in comparison with the optimized tilting-controlled mode. We also demonstrate the thermally driven self-oscillation of the MXene-PVDF device, which may have promising potential for optically and thermally driven soft robotics. The PT-TM actuator devices display robust mechanical strength and durability, with no noticeable degradation in their performance after more than 1000 cycles.Citation
Tu, S., Xu, L., El-Demellawi, J. K., Liang, H., Xu, X., Lopatin, S., … Alshareef, H. N. (2020). Autonomous MXene-PVDF actuator for flexible solar trackers. Nano Energy, 77, 105277. doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.105277Sponsors
We acknowledge funding support by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award No. OSR-2016-CRG5-2977. S.T. X.Z. and H.A. conceived the idea. S.T. designed the experiments. S.T. J.K.D. H.F.L. X.M.X, and S.L. performed materials fabrication and characterizations. L.X. and S.D.W. conducted simulation. S.T. L.X. and J.K.D. wrote the paper. The authors would like to appreciate the helpful discussion of Dr. Keith Mclntosh from PVlighthouse. All authors contributed to paper revision.Publisher
Elsevier BVJournal
Nano EnergyAdditional Links
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2211285520308545ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.105277