Shape-Customizable 3D Corn Husk-Derived Carbon Evaporator for High-Performance Solar Desalination.

Hydrogel-based solar interfacial evaporators, featuring various channels such as random, unidirectional, and radial array, are considered effective for seawater desalination owing to their porous structure, lower evaporation enthalpy, and controllable water transport capacity. However, each individual array structure has its own strengths and limitations, influencing water transportation, thermal management, and salt rejection. By combining the benefits of each array configuration into a single evaporator, the evaporation performance can be maximized. Herein, the study develops a unique nanofibrous hydrogel-based solar evaporator featuring a combined radical/vertical array structure. This integrated structure with external radial and internal vertical channels endows this evaporator with excellent water transport capability and reduced heat loss, resulting in superior evaporation performance and high salty resistance. The addition of nanofibers into hydrogels not only enhances the hydrogel's stability but also facilitates water transport. Under 1 sun illumination, this evaporator can achieve an impressive evaporation rate of 4.62 kg m-2 h-1 with an energy efficiency of 149.57%. After 12 h of evaporation in a 20 wt.% NaCl solution, it still maintains an average evaporation rate of 3.98 kg m-2 h-1 with minimal salt accumulation, thereby exhibiting its exceptional salt resistance and durability.

MXene-based PCC-IS/M@TiO2 ternary integrated heterogeneous conjunctiva for efficient interfacial evaporation and photocatalytic degradation

Tunable all-in-one bimodal porous membrane of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene for solar driven interfacial evaporation

Experimental optimization of conical solar distillers using graphite pin fins as sensible heat storage materials: Energy, exergy, and exergo-economic approach

Experimental study of the solar-driven interfacial evaporation based on a novel magnetic nano solar absorber

Desalination of seawater through solar-driven interfacial evaporation is an efficient approach to solve the freshwater resource shortage problem. However, the salt formation and crystallization during interfacial evaporation limit the long-term stability of the solar evaporator. To further improve the salt-rejecting capability of the solar evaporator, we developed a porous framework photothermal microgroove-structured aerogel (PDA/PEI/PPy@PI-MS MGA, pppMGA) through a combined freeze drying, laser engraving, and chemical polymerization technique. A multilevel water transport network consisting of a three-dimensional (3D) skeleton, a microgroove-structured water channel, and a cotton core is constructed, which can effectively improve the salt-rejecting capability of the aerogel. At the same time, the combination of the 3D porous microgroove structure of the pppMGA evaporative interface and the efficient light absorption capacity of PPy effectively increases the vapor-liquid evaporation area and the light absorption rate (98%). A high evaporation rate (∼1.38 kg m-2 h-1) and high photothermal conversion efficiency (∼93.04%) can be achieved on the pppMGA evaporator under 1 sun illumination, which can operate stably in high salt concentration (20%) water for 8 h. Even under 3 sun illumination and a 20 wt % NaCl solution, the pppMGA evaporator can operate stably without salt crystallization. Such a photothermal aerogel with high salt-rejecting performance provides a new avenue for designing an interfacial evaporation system that can operate stably under high salt concentration conditions.

Zwitterionic hydrogel, serving as carriers for hygroscopic salts, holds significant potential in atmospheric water harvesting. However, their further application is limited by structural collapse in high-concentration salt solution and poor photothermal conversion performance. Herein, the graded pore structure of poly-3-[dimethyl-[2-(2-methylprop-2-enoyloxy)ethyl]azaniumyl]propane-1-sulfonate (PDMAPS) zwitterionic hydrogel/TpPa-1 covalent organic frameworks (COFs)/LiCl composite (named as PCL composite hydrogel) is proposed, which leads to the accelerated diffusion effect for water molecules. As a result, the vapor adsorption capacity of the optimal composite hydrogel (PCL-42) reaches 2.88 g g-1 within 12 hours under conditions of 25 °C and 90 % RH. Simultaneously, the maximum temperature of PCL-42 composite could reach 53.9 °C after 9 minutes under a simulated solar intensity of 1.0 kW m-2, releasing 91 % of the adsorbed water in 3 hours, providing a promising prospect for efficient solar-driven atmospheric water harvesting. One cycle could collect 7.55 g of fresh water under outdoor conditions, and the maximum daily water production may reach 2.71 kg kg-1. The reason lies in that TpPa-1 COFs lead hydrogel to form a gradient pore structure, which may accelerate the transport of water molecules, increase the loading capacity of LiCl and enhance the photothermal property.

3D Janus structure MXene/cellulose nanofibers/luffa aerogels with superb mechanical strength and high-efficiency desalination for solar-driven interfacial evaporation

One-dimensional Fe/C constructed Janus membrane enables highly-efficient and stable solar-driven interfacial evaporation

Interfacial solar‐driven evaporation systems are eco‐friendly and promising approaches to produce freshwater and energy. However, the salt accumulation, intricate fabrication process, low evaporation rates, and condensate yields due to environmental stress limit its further practical applications. Herein, an ingenious polyelectrolyte strategy is proposed to effectively control salt accumulation and achieve higher condensate yields through remote and lightweight condensing structures. By sequentially adhering LiNi 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 O 2‐δ (NCAL) and selectively modifying polystyrene sodium sulfonate (PSS) on a black polyvinyl alcohol sponge, a three‐dimensional (3D) porous foam structure is conveniently constructed (NCAL@PBS), which features a Donnan exclusion with efficient photothermal conversion and salt‐resistance with balanced water supply. The efficient evaporation rate of optimized NCAL@PBS exhibits 2.80 kg m −2 h −1 under one solar irradiation due to non‐radiative relaxation behavior achieved via oxygen vacancy defects (13%) in the NCAL structure, and low evaporation enthalpy (1621 J g −1 ), guaranteeing stable and efficient evaporation in complicated environments. The NCAL demonstrates nearly 100% antibacterial efficiency against S. aureus under one sun solar irradiation, attributed to photothermal‐induced hyperthermia that damages bacterial cell walls. This work introduces a novel strategy for promoting the water production rate, intelligence, and industrial application of solar‐driven interfacial evaporators.

Solar‐driven interfacial evaporation (SIE) emerge as a promising technology to mitigate the worldwide freshwater shortage and energy crisis. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are widely used for the construction of hydrogel evaporators. Nevertheless, their evaporation performance is still restricted by their poor dispersibility and strong hydrophilicity. Even worse, the agglomeration of CNTs will diminish the formation of porous structures within the hydrogels and weaken the water transportation, finally resulting in decreased evaporation efficiency. To address those issues, CNTs with improved dispersibility and hydrophilicity are successfully achieved via metal‐phenolic coordination chemistry‐based interfacial engineering. The resulting metal‐phenolic networks (MPN)‐coated CNTs are further incorporated into a poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel, to synergistically realize superior photothermal performance and water molecule activation. In this way, a robust solar evaporator with hierarchical pores is fabricated for efficient evaporation and mass transportation, which achieves a rate of 2.9 kg m −2 h −1 under 1 sun illumination while maintaining stable operation in long‐term and high‐salt environments. Actual outdoor experiments and catalytic gel formation in acrylamide hydrogels further confirm the robustness of these MPN‐coated CNT‐based devices for SIE. It is believed that this study paves a new avenue toward the development of carbon‐based hierarchically porous hydrogel evaporators, for efficient and stable solar evaporation.

Trapping waste metal ions in a hydrogel/coal powder composite for boosting sewage purification via solar-driven interfacial water evaporation with long-term durability

Influence of partial solar energy storage and solar concentration ratio on the productivity of integrated solar still/humidification-dehumidification desalination systems

96/05135 Effect of glass cover inclination and parametric studies of concentrator-assisted solar distillation system

Solar interfacial evaporation based oil/water separation from emulsion using a wood-melamine/calcium alginate composite structure