Facile Preparation of Cu2S/Cu Mesh For High‐performance Solar Water Evaporation

Abstract

AbstractSolar vapor generation has attracted tremendous attention as one of the most efficient ways of utilizing solar energy. Compared with bulk heating, interfacial solar steam generation efficiency is high, and the heat loss to the surrounding environment is minimal, which is an eco‐friendly and energy‐efficient way of harvesting solar energy for desalination and wastewater treatment. So it is highly desirable to develop low‐cost and high‐efficiency solar absorbers for practical applications of interfacial solar steam generation. In this work, Cu2S/Cu mesh was prepared by depositing Cu2S nanoparticles on copper mesh by one‐step hydrothermal method, which was used as photothermal conversion material for solar interfacial evaporation. This material owns a high solar absorptivity of 84.01 % within the wavelength range of 0.25–2.5 μm. Under one sun illumination, the evaporation rate is 1.55 kg m−2 h−1 and the solar thermal conversion efficiency reaches 96.9 %. The cycle stability tests showed that the evaporation rate decreased firstly and then was balanced at 1.34 kg m−2 h−1 in 10 cycles. Furthermore, this material can maintain a stable performance of interfacial solar steam generation during desalination of seawater and purification of dye wastewater containing Rhodamine B and Methyl Orange, respectively. This work provides a low‐cost, simple, and efficient preparation method for synthesizing an efficient Cu2S/Cu mesh solar steam evaporation material.