Biomass-derived three-dimensional robust solar evaporator for efficient steam generation, water purification and salt-resistant desalination

Abstract

High-performance salt-resistant solar evaporators breaking the theoretical limit of solar steam generation are highly desired for solar water evaporation technology. However, low-cost, scalable and continuous solar steam generation remains a big challenge. Herein, a robust biomass-based salt-resistant three-dimensional (3D) evaporator is designed and developed, which is composed of bamboo leaf-derived carbon (BLC) and heat-insulating macroporous melamine foam (MF), showing the integrated merits for the boosted solar evaporation performances. The designed BLC/MF evaporator presents excellent photothermal conversion ability with an evaporation rate as high as 2.29 kg m-2h−1 and acceptable evaporation efficiency of 93.95 % under one-sun irradiation. The superior performance endows BLC/MF evaporator with flexible and versatile behaviors to purify various water sources to produce clean water meeting the standard level of World Health Organization (WHO) for drinkable water. Significantly, the BLC/MF evaporator maintains a similar evaporation rate in saline solutions and can work stably at high salinities without salt deposition. This present discloses that the BLC/MF evaporator can be served as a feasible and robust alternative for solar water evaporation in various water environment for clean water production.