Bio-inspired selective filtration of sphagnum for efficient solar driven purification of high salinity seawater

Abstract

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation has emerged as an efficient and sustainable way to generate freshwater from seawater to address the crisis of drinkable water. Though rational designs of photothermal materials and structures are essential to the interfacial solar evaporation process, the salt accumulation remains a challenge to the long-term operation of seawater desalination. Here, we report a high-yield and low-cost natural sphagnum as solar steam generator with ultra-fast water transportation, unique microstructure to prevent salting out, and high evaporation rates. The carbonized sphagnum based photothermal evaporator exhibits a strong broad-band light absorption (>97.0 %). During the solar steam generation, a high evaporation rate of 3.53 kg m−2 h−1 was achieved under 1.0 sun illumination. More significantly, the 3D sphagnum evaporator shows excellent selective filtration of salt ions and cycling stability in actual sea water even high salinity solution (10 wt.% NaCl) for 7 days. This work provides an environmentally friendly and cost-effective photothermal material for large-scale seawater desalination, and treatment of waste water with high ions concentration.