Cellulose nanofiber/molybdenum disulfide aerogels for ultrahigh photothermal effect

The photothermal materials have a broad range of applications in crude oil spills treatment, desalination, and photothermal therapy. However, the rational construction of aerogels with exceptional photothermal performance is highly desired yet still challenging. Herein, a class of stable aerogels comprised of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoflowers and cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) was fabricated, affording extraordinary light-to-heat energy conversion capability. Benefiting from the intercalated porous structure, the resultant cellulose nanofibers/molybdenum disulfide (CNF/MoS2) aerogels deliver an ultrahigh temperature output up to 260.4 °C with near infrared (NIR) laser power densities of 0.8 W cm-2. Remarkably, when NIR laser power density increased to 1.0 W cm-2, the aerogels began to burn, achieving the superhigh surface temperature of ∼ 690 °C. The combustion process of CNF/MoS2 composite aerogels was evaluated in detail. Therefore, this work provides experiment evidence and theoretical basis for the rational applications of photothermal materials at high temperature in future.