Flexible Anti-Biofouling MXene/Cellulose Fibrous Membrane for Sustainable Solar-Driven Water Purification

Abstract

Solar-driven interfacial water evaporation is regarded as an effective, renewable, and environment-friendly technology for clean water production. However, biofouling caused by the nonspecific interaction between the steam generator and biofoulants generally hinders the efficient application of wastewater treatment. Herein, this work reports a facile strategy to fabricate flexible anti-biofouling fibrous photothermal membrane consisting of a MXene-coated cellulose membrane for highly efficient solar-driven water steam evaporation toward water purification applications. The as-prepared MXene/cellulose photothermal membrane exhibits light absorption efficiency as high as ∼94% in a wide solar spectrum range and a water evaporation rate up to 1.44 kg m-2 h-1 under one solar illumination. Also, the MXene/cellulose membrane shows very high antibacterial efficiency (above 99.9%) owing to the MXene coating as a highly effective bacteriostatic agent. Such a flexible, anti-biofouling, and high-efficiency photothermal membrane sheds light on practical applications in long-term wastewater treatments.