Abstract
Solar‐driven vapor generation is a promising method to mitigate freshwater shortage and water contamination. However, most of the current highly efficient solar evaporators suffer from low robustness, tedious preparation procedures, and high cost. In this study, an easy‐to‐manufacture, low‐cost, and high‐reliability solar‐driven evaporator is designed using a black cotton towel with a hollow conical shape. The reactive dye molecules diffuse into the cotton and form strong covalent bonds with the fiber after dyeing, which firmly fixes light‐absorbing materials on the substrate. The looped pile structure of towels and hierarchical structure of yarns enable the evaporator enlarged surface area. The hollow conical shape of the cotton towel can effectively suppress the heat loss to the environment without compromising light absorption. The 3D vapor generator exhibits an evaporation rate of 1.40 and 1.27 kg m−2 h−1 for pure water and saline water, respectively. Meanwhile, this towel‐based solar‐driven evaporator exhibits a promising antifouling property as well as superior reusability and provides a reliable pathway in dealing with realistic waters, such as seawater and dyeing sewage. Therefore, the low‐cost, solar‐driven water evaporation system offers a complementary approach for high‐efficiency vapor generation and water purification in practical application.
Highlights
Solar-driven vapor generation is a promising method to mitigate freshwater by contaminating excessive amounts of available water
A typical bilayer structured interfacial solar vapor generator is performed by the cooperation of efficient solar light vapor generation and water purification in practical application
We report an inexpensive, durable, scalable, and efficient solar-driven vapor generator composed of a 3D dyed black cotton towel and an insulating polystyrene (PS) foam
Summary
A black cotton towel was employed as the solar light absorber for several reasons: i) low cost, ii) high water absorbency, iii) good mechanical durability, and iv) flexibility. The reactive dye shows good color fastness properties to washing (grade 4–5), rubbing (grade 4–5), and light (grade 3–4) owing to the covalent bonding that occurs during dyeing (Table S1, Supporting Information).[27] Comparing with most of the previous solar absorbers which were prepared by the deposition of photothermal. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images display no distinct variations on the surface morphology of fibers before (Figure 2c) and after dyeing (Figure 2d) This is because the reactive dye is a kind of small molecular dye which can infiltrate into the inner space of cotton fibers. It is believed that the optical absorbing property of the black dye is the main contributor to the high light absorption of the dyed cotton towel. The typical looped pile structure and extremely porous structure of cotton towel further increase the optical path and decrease the reflection, which makes a contribution in this aspect (Figure S2, Supporting Information)
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