Zwitterionic functionalized catalytic evaporator enables simultaneous solar distillation and organic pollutant degradation

Abstract

Solar distillation is regarded as a nearly ideal sustainable technology for clean water generation. However, micro- and macro-foulers live in the natural water and volatile organic compounds induced by overdischarging of wastewater are still the main challenges of solar distillation. Herein, a compositive strategy is presented to fabricate self-floatable catalytic evaporators with both solar distillation and organic pollutant degradation, through Fe MOF-loaded electrospinning and antibiofouling zwitterionic coating. The obtained catalytic evaporator with a fibrous structure can lead to enhanced solar distillation rate (1.43 kg m-2h−1) and conversion efficiency (89.41%). More importantly, the zwitterionic hydrogel coating endows the evaporator with superhydrophilicity for continuous water pumping and fascinating multi-contamination repellence against bacteria, alga, oil and salt, and the Fe MOF enables organic pollutants decomposition via photo-Fenton reaction. The currently designed catalytic evaporator integrates the above merits and is expected to provide a new dimension for the designing of multifunctional solar evaporation devices, solving the device contamination and organic residue issues in water treatment.