Sun Irradiation Research Articles

Efficient antibiotic wastewater treatment via interfacial water evaporation based soot-coated conjugated microporous polymer hollow microspheres

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) technology holds the promise of purification and removal of organic pollutants from water samples. In this work, an efficient SDIE composed of multifunctional self-floating photothermal materials based on candle soot-coated conjugated microporous polymer hollow spheres (CS-CMPsHM) for treatment of tetracycline (TC) wastewater is reported. By depositing candle soot nanoparticles, CS-CMPsHM achieved excellent interfacial evaporation performance by extending the light absorption. Additionally, the π-π interaction between CMP's unique conjugated network and TC molecules and the well-developed porosity facilitates the capture of target contaminants. The synthesized CS-CMPsHM evaporator demonstrated remarkable properties, i.e., excellent photothermal performance (with superior photothermal conversion efficiency up to 94 % and evaporation rate of 1.55 kg m−2h−1 under one sun irradiation), extremely low wet thermal conductivity (0.075 W m-1K−1), reusability, superior salt resistance, stability, adsorption of pollutants and renewable performance. Furthermore, CS-CMPsHM remains its excellent purification performance from real water samples (the Yellow River) measured by a three-dimensional fluorescence spectrometer. The results of biological toxicity show that the purified water recovered by the SDIE method effectively reduced the phytotoxicity of TC. With its straightforward and scalable manufacturing process, our CS-CMPsHM demonstrates promising potential as advanced photothermal materials for the treatment of various pollutants using SDIE.

Morph-genetic biomimetic multiscale porous hydrogels for high-efficient solar evaporation from seawater

Huge seawater resources are of utmost importance in addressing the increasing and severe water shortage worldwide. However, high-efficiently and sustainably extracting fresh water from seawater through solar evaporation remains a challenging task. Herein, we propose a novel approach based on the morph-genetic biomimetic concept, utilizing a cuttlebone-templated directional porous hydrogel (CTDPH). By etching away the cuttlebone (CaCO3) in the hydrogel network, we have developed a zwitterionic material that exhibits high-efficiency photo-thermal conversion, resistance to salt deposition, and super hydrophilicity, enabling high-efficiency solar evaporation. The resultant CTDPH demonstrates a high level of photo-thermal conversion efficiency, thanks to the incorporation of MXene (Ti3C2Tx) 2D nanosheets. By introducing polyzwitterions into the hydrogel matrix, the CTDPH achieves superhydrophilicity, greatly enhancing the transport of seawater. More importantly, the CTDPH possesses a penetrating oriented macro-porous structure, enabling rapid seawater transportation while effectively preventing salt crystallization. This prevents salt deposition on the surface of the hydrogel even during continuous 12-hour 1.0 sun irradiation. As a result, compared with the MXene-free gels and cuttlebone-reserved gels, this CTDPH can largely increase the seawater evaporating rate from 0.73 or 1.75 to 3.11 kg m-2h−1 under 1.0 sun irradiation. Furthermore, even after undergoing 10 cycles of seawater evaporation, the CTDPH still maintains 91.6% of its original solar evaporation rate (2.85 kg m-2h−1). The CTDPH emerges as a promising contender, offering both high efficiency and sustainability for solar evaporation from seawater, while simultaneously paving the way for innovative approaches to explore other materials and systems in the realm of solar evaporation.

All-in-one self-floating porous foams as robust heat-blocking layers for efficient photothermal conversion and solar desalination

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation is a highly efficient and ecofriendly technology for producing freshwater. Herein, self-floating plasmon Ag/black TiO2/carbon porous layered foams (Ag-BTCFs) were demonstrated as efficient solar-thermal convectors using freeze-drying cast-molding and high-temperature surface hydrogenation strategies. This all-in-one three-dimensional (3D) cross-linked self-floating porous layered foam material with full-spectrum absorption can fully harvest sunlight (∼95.45%) and effectively block heat transfer to its sublayer. The synergy of sufficient utilization of absorbed ultraviolet radiation by black TiO2 (b-TiO2), visible light absorption by Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) via localized surface plasmon resonance, and near-infrared absorption by layered-amorphous carbon can achieve full-solar-spectrum absorption to concentrate thermal energy. In addition to their synergistic effect, they are conducive to the relaxation of hot electrons when utilizing photogenerated holes to degrade pollutants in domestic wastewater. The steam generation efficiency of Ag-BTCFs is up to 1.79 kg m−2h−1 due to their solar energy conversion efficiency of 81.74% under 1 sun irradiation, which is five times higher than the evaporation rate of pure water. Notably, the material’s efficient ion removal rate of 99.80% for solar desalination indicates its high potential for various applications. This strategy provides new insights for fabricating recyclable heat-blocking layer systems against thermal loss to enhance solar steam generation.

Bifunctional Solar Evaporator with Co/N-Doped Graphene Oxide for Synergistic Steam Generation and Organic Pollutant Degradation.

Solar-driven interfacial steam generation (SISG) is a promising technology for alleviating freshwater shortage. However, when the SISG technology is applied to wastewater treatment, the contaminant would be enriched in residual bulk water. Herein, a dual-functional evaporator was constructed via tactfully decorating Co/N-doped graphene oxide (GO) on melamine foam (MF), which can simultaneously achieve efficient vapor production and source water purification. N-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) endowed evaporators with powerful light absorption and water transport performance, guaranteeing an evaporation rate of 2.02 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun irradiation. Meanwhile, the catalytic activity of the carbon layer was adjusted by the N dopant and embedded Co particles, providing abundant active sites to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS). When treating the solution containing sulfamethoxazole (SMX), no SMX residues were detected in the remaining bulk water (up to 100% SMX degradation efficiency within 60 min), demonstrating that reactive oxygen species (ROS) were generated to attack SMX in the source water. The bifunctional evaporator successfully combined SISG and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), providing an ingenious strategy for solving the problem of wastewater enrichment during SISG.

Preparation of solar photo-thermal driven aerogel and clarification of the mechanism for enhanced uranium adsorption

The oceans contain a significant amount of uranium, a valuable resource for nuclear power and fuel applications. However, current technologies for extracting uranium from seawater have limitations, including low efficiency and high energy consumption. Aerogels are promising materials for uranyl ion adsorption due to their high porosity and abundant active sites. This study presents a novel approach for efficient uranium extraction from seawater using a full-fiber-based PAO/PPy aerogel. This aerogel enables rapid diffusion of uranium and accelerated adsorption in the presence of heat generated by sun irradiation, achieving a high adsorption capacity of 69.66 mg g−1 under 1 kW m−2 in 50 mg L−1 solution. The dynamical and thermodynamic simulations indicate the presence of both chemisorption and physisorption throughout the adsorption process. Additionally, the composite aerogel is demonstrated antifouling performance and excellent selectivity of U(VI) in a mixed ionic solution. The present study offers a novel approach for the rational design of aerogel adsorbents that can effectively extract uranium from seawater in outdoor environments, without the need for additional energy input.

T-shape solar evaporator constructed with natural wood and Ti2O3 nanoparticles for water evaporation and desalination

Desalination by solar-driven interfacial evaporation is considered as an effective green way to solve the shortage of fresh water resources. However, traditional interfacial evaporation systems are subject to heat loss. In this work, we designed and constructed a T-shape solar evaporator by using natural wood as a support and black Ti2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) with a narrow band-gap as a photothermal conversion material. As a T-shape support, natural wood with good hydrophilicity, well-arranged hierarchical channels and low thermal conductivity not only hinders the loss of conducted heat to water, but also ensures a high rate of moisture transport. As the top solar energy absorption layer for thermal localization and salt collection, horizontal wood surface coated by Ti2O3 NPs has a total solar absorption capacity of 93.6% over the full spectrum. A colorless acid-catalyzed silica sol (ACSS) as a binder is introduced in order to improve the adhesion of Ti2O3 NPs on the wood surface. The horizontal wood is connected vertically with another piece of wood for transporting water and providing thermal insulation. The constructed T-shape evaporator achieves a water evaporation rate of 2.33 kg/m2/h for pure water under 1 sun irradiation. In a desalination experiment, the water evaporation rate is 0.31 kg/m2/h and the salt recovery rate is stable up to 50 h at 31.13 g/m2/h. This work may provide new insights into the design and construction of low-cost, environmentally friendly and efficient solar evaporators for seawater desalination.

Broadband solar irradiation reflection by multilayer photonic structures with randomized layer thickness

Reflecting components based on photonic crystals that are optimized to reflect the Sun irradiation are very useful for energy applications. The employment of photonic structures as back reflectors in solar cells is widely studied. Moreover, photo-thermal effect employing photonic crystals to enhance photocatalysis is recently attracting increasing attention. Here, we show the efficient reflectivity of the whole solar irradiation spectrum with multilayer disordered photonic structures. To build a multilayer photonic structure that reflects a wide portion of the solar irradiation, a structure with a random distribution of layer thicknesses has been designed. A sequence of thicknesses for a 30-layer photonic structure, which allows a remarkable reflectance in the infrared part of the solar irradiation, has been determined with a proper algorithm. The angular dependence of the reflection of the photonic structure has been also studied. Such multilayers are made with Earth abundant materials, i.e., silicon dioxide and zirconium dioxide.

Economical, Simple‐to‐Prepare, and Salt‐Resistant Evaporator Based on Porous Activated Carbon for Sustainable Solar Evaporation

Interfacial solar vapor evaporation is expected to be an emerging technology to solve the scarcity of freshwater due to its sustainability and high efficiency. However, the present application of evaporators is mainly limited by the complex preparation process, expensive cost of raw material, and poor structure. Herein, based on coconut shell activated carbon (CSC) and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), a cost‐effective and robust CSC/UHMWPE (CSC/PE) evaporator is prepared through sintering in a mold. Benefiting from high light absorptance (≈90%) and excellent thermal localization, the CSC/PE evaporator exhibits an evaporation rate of 1.340 kg m−2 h−1 and an evaporation efficiency of 80.57% in 3.5 wt% brine under 1 sun irradiation. Moreover, by regulating the component ratios, the CSC/PE evaporator achieves superhydrophilicity and proper water transportation rate, and shows long‐term stability with an average evaporation rate of 1.309 kg m−2 h−1 in natural seawater for 10 h. Specifically, the high porosity CSC/PE facilitates the salt resistance in high salinity brine (15 wt%). Importantly, the cost‐effectiveness of CSC/PE is 53.43 g h−1 $−1, which is economical compared to other reported evaporators. Therefore, the economical, simple‐to‐prepare, and durable CSC/PE evaporator has enormous potential in interfacial solar vapor evaporation for freshwater production.

New Concept of Power Generation from TEGs Using the Sun Irradiation and Oil Tanks – Thermal Modeling and Parametric Study

In this manuscript, a new concept of power generation from thermoelectric generators TEGs using the sun irradiation and two oil tanks, one hot and one cold, is proposed. It consists of two oil tanks separated by a plate covering several TEGs in series. The oil tank at the bottom of the system constitutes a cold convection condition for the TEGs plate; on the other hand, the upper oil tank accounts for a hot convection condition since its upper surface is transparent and therefore subjected to the sun irradiation that will heat up the oil. To test the feasibility of this concept, an appropriate thermal modeling is developed and associated parametric analysis was carried out. It shows that powers up to 242 W can be generated with a system having a hot oil tank height of 0.2 m along with a width and length of 2 m each.

Tailoring surface topography of biochar-based hydrogel for hazardous pollutants removal from contaminated seawater through simultaneous steam-electricity generation

Although solar steam generation (SSG) is a promising strategy for solving global freshwater scarcity, some technological gaps remain such as the generally costly and delicate nanostructures. Herein, multifunctional Biochar/PAAm hydrogels with excellent resilience, openly porous structure, fast water-transfer, and enhanced light-trapping performances were fabricated from the strong attraction of the biochar functional groups and the abundant amido groups of the backbone chain of hydrogel through a facile polymerization strategy. Under 1 sun irradiation, the composite exhibited a high and long-term evaporation rate of 2.22 kg m−2 h−1 due to the synergistic effect of excellent light absorption of biochar and fast water transmission in hydrogel structure which decrease the evaporation enthalpy. Furthermore, the hydrogel surface topography was controlled by template-assisted gelation producing a sharply dimpled surface (SDS) that exhibited a high evaporation rate of 2.71 kg m−2 and an efficiency of 98.7 % owing to the light trapping effect on the sharped surfaces. The high adsorption capacity of the hydrogel enables the removal of hazardous pollutants from the bulk water preventing their concentration in the brine after the solar desalination process. Besides, a thermoelectric (TE) generator can be integrated with the membrane producing a simultaneous power density of 728.2 mW/m2.

Simulating two Algerian cities' desalination plants coupled with solar energy systems using TRNSYS

Abstract Our study aimed to design a prototype for a desalination unit coupled with a solar collector, utilizing TRNSYS 16, to address the needs of both Bouzaréah in northern Algeria and Ghardaïa in southern Algeria. The desalination unit is composed of vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) coupled with a solar collector, and the photovoltaic has been designed according to the climatic conditions of each region. In this work, the approach adopted is to integrate a model developed in the literature into a simulation environment (TRNSYS) coupled with the CODE-BLOCKS compiler and FORTRAN programming language to create a new component (i.e., VMD process). Simulation results showed that the optimum permeation flux obtained through the desalination unit is relatively higher in Ghardaïa than in Bouzaréah, with a flow exceeding 30 kg/h.m2. The permeation flux and the power to load reached their maximum values with the charge of solar irradiation 48 kg/h.m2 and 6300 kJ/h, respectively, for Ghardaïa at the sun irradiation value 800 W/m2 and temperature of 34 °C. Results showed that Ghardaïa had a higher GOR value than Bouzaréah over the year (10.947 vs. 8.3389). Moreover, both locations recorded thermal recovery ratio values exceeding 1, indicating the high efficiency of the desalination unit.

Nb2CTX/graphene aerogels for efficient solar-driven steam generation

The development of high-efficiency photothermal conversion materials for seawater desalination is crucial to mitigating the global freshwater shortage crisis. The present investigation is aimed to prepare three-dimensional cylinder Nb2CTX/graphene aerogels (Nb2CTX/GAs) by a combined hydrothermal and freeze-drying process as a photothermal conversion material for solar-driven steam generation. The broad adsorption spectrum, porous microstructure, and excellent hydrophilicity account for the superior photothermal conversion performance of Nb2CTX/GAs. A high evaporation rate of 1.423 kg·m2h−1 was achieved as well as an exceptional solar steam conversion efficiency of 89.6% under one sun irradiation. Furthermore, Nb2CTX/GAs exhibited excellent cyclic stability of photothermal conversion. This work attempts to reveal the great prospect of Nb2CTX/GAs in seawater desalination applications.

Simultaneous Solar-Thermal Desalination and Catalytic Degradation of Wastewater Containing Both Salt Ions and Organic Contaminants.

Although solar steam generation is promising in generating clean water by desalinating seawater, it is powerless to totally degrade organic contaminants in the seawater. Herein, solar steam generation and catalytic degradation are integrated to generate clean water by simultaneous solar-driven desalination and catalytic degradation of wastewater containing both salt ions and organic contaminants. Stepwise decoration of three-dimensional nickel foam with polypyrrole, reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and cobalt phosphate is realized to obtain polypyrrole/RGO/cobalt phosphate/nickel foam (PGCN) hybrids for solar-driven desalination and catalytic degradation of wastewater containing antibiotics and salt ions. The oxygen-containing groups of the RGO integrated with the porous nickel foam make the porous PGCN hybrid hydrophilic and ensure the upward transport of water to the evaporation surface, and the oxygen vacancies of the cobalt phosphate allow the PGCN to generate abundant highly active singlet oxygen that could still exhibit excellent catalytic degradation performances in the high salinity and highly alkaline environment of seawater. In addition to the high solar light absorbance and satisfactory solar-thermal conversion efficiency of polypyrrole and RGO, the thermally conductive nickel foam skeleton can effectively transfer the heat generated by the solar-thermal energy conversion to the adjacent cobalt phosphate catalyst and nearby wastewater, achieving a solar-thermal-promoted catalytic degradation of organic contaminants. Therefore, a high pure water evaporation rate of 2.08 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun irradiation and 100% catalytic degradation of Norfloxacin and dyes are achieved. The PGCN hybrid is highly efficient in purifying seawater containing 10 ppm Norfloxacin and simultaneously achieves a high purification efficiency of 100 kg m-2 h-1.

Optimizing coupling effect of confined FeNi nanoalloys within graphitic carbon nanofibers to improve photothermal energy conversion efficiency for solar water purification

Sustainable and energy-efficient water purification by harnessing solar energy is critical to tackling the challenges of water scarcity and the on-going water pollution crisis. Nevertheless, the biggest challenge to the practical deployment of solar-driven water purification, however, continues to be the poor solar evaporation efficiency of materials. Herein, FeNi nanoalloys encapsulated in graphitic carbon nanofibers (FeNi3/CNF) using Prussian blue analogue (PBAs) derivatives were fabricated using electrospinning and carbonization. The PBAs metal precursors play a critical role in encapsulating and safeguarding the FeNi alloy nanostructures from oxidation and agglomeration challenges. Furthermore, the synergistic effects between the non-noble hybrid plasmonic nanoalloys and graphitic CNFs can be constructed and optimized from the mass loading of PBAs precursor. Benefiting from the broad solar absorption band, high specific surface area, abundant micro-mesopores, and well-organized interlayer channel, the resultant 2D FeNi3/CNF solar evaporator demonstrates an efficient water evaporation rate of 1.51 kg m-2h−1 with an outstanding solar evaporation efficiency of 93.3 % under one sun irradiation, among the best values reported thus far. Impressively, the resultant 2D FeNi3/CNF solar evaporator can be constructed using only 0.02 kg m−2 loading of photothermal materials without compromising evaporation performance, which highlights its cost-efficiency in the practical application. Furthermore, the desalinated water meets the drinking standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) with an efficient 99 % separation of multiple organic industrial dye pollutants. Hence, this work demonstrates an efficient cost-effective approach to novel non-noble plasmonic alloy-based metal–carbon composites for enhanced solar-driven interfacial evaporation and wastewater purification.

Interfacial engineering of MXene-based composite aerogel for high-performance, multifunctional solar steam generator

MXene, an emerging two-dimensional material, has shown its evident application prospects in solar-driven interfacial water evaporation due to excellent photothermal conversion capability. However, MXene still suffers from a few undesirable characteristics in this scenario, including weak stability, self-stacking, and suboptimal optical absorption. To address these issues, in this paper, we fabricated a MXene-based composite aerogel, featuring with interconnected porous structure, broad and high solar absorption, good wettability and photothermal capacity. As our judicious structural and compositional design for the aerogel decreased the evaporation enthalpy of water, the solar steam generator based on the aerogel exhibited an outstanding water evaporation rate as high as 2.31 kg m−2 h−1 under one sun irradiation (and the corresponding solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency reached 90.8 %). Additionally, the aerogel was also designed with an excellent adsorption capacity for removal of heavy metal ions from water as well as a good antibacterial ability, which should be helpful in dealing with the complex working environments for solar steam generators. This work may shed light on the design and development of multifunctional solar steam generators toward practical and sustainable applications.

TiN nanoparticles/OMS-2 nanorods/carbonized wood composites for simultaneous solar water evaporation and abatement of volatile organic compound from undrinkable water

Severe air pollution, water pollution, and climate change have led to an increasing shortage of clean water. Solar interface water evaporation is becoming important to obtain distilled water from undrinkable water such as seawater and contaminated water. However, the as-obtained distilled water usually contains excessive volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are serious harmful to human health. In this article, a novel bi-functional material is prepared by depositing manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieve (OMS-2) nanorods on carbonized wood (CW), which can simultaneously realize solar water evaporation and VOCs abatement. OMS-2 nanorods synthesized at lower hydrothermal temperature possess higher oxygen vacancy defects, which can improve not only the solar absorption and solar water evaporation rate but also solar driven photothermo-catalytic activity for the oxidation of VOCs. Doping TiN nanoparticles into CW/OMS-2 can further enhance the solar water evaporation performances and VOCs removal efficiencies because of its excellent solar absorption ability, which can further increase the temperature of OMS-2 catalyst and accelerate the solar water evaporation and the toluene degradation. The as-designed bifunctional composites possess an outstanding water evaporation rate over 1.436 kg m−2 h−1 and a toluene removal efficiency of 92.96% under 2.5 sun irradiation, indicating exciting prospects for efficiently producing clean water from undrinkable water with VOCs.

Vitamin C for Photo-Stable Non-fullerene-acceptor-Based Organic Solar Cells.

The recent advent of the new class of organic molecules, the so-called non-fullerene acceptors, has resulted in skyrocketing power conversion efficiencies of organic solar cells. However, rapid degradation occurs under illumination, particularly when photocatalytic metal oxide electron transport layers are used in these devices. We introduced vitamin C (ascorbic acid) into the organic solar cells as a photostabilizer and systematically studied its photostabilizing effect on inverted PBDB-T:IT-4F devices. The presence of vitamin C as an antioxidant layer between the ZnO electron transport layer and the photoactive layer strongly suppressed the photocatalytic effect of ZnO that induces NFA photodegradation. Upon 96 h of exposure to AM 1.5G 1 Sun irradiation, the reference devices lost 64% of their initial efficiency, while those containing vitamin C lost only 38%. The UV-visible absorption, impedance spectroscopy, and light-dependent voltage and current measurements reveal that vitamin C reduces the photobleaching of NFA molecules and suppresses the charge recombination. This simple approach using a low-cost, naturally occurring antioxidant, provides an efficient strategy for improving photostability of organic semiconductor-based devices.

Green synthesize of copper nanoparticles on the cotton fabric as a self-regenerating and high-efficient plasmonic solar evaporator

Harvesting solar energy, as a clean and abundant resource, in the photothermal process, is the winning point of solar steam generation (SSG) systems. Herein, copper plasmonic nanoparticles were synthesized through a green method via red sanders extraction on the cotton fabric as the reducing matrix. The prepared fabrics were analyzed using FESEM, EDS, XRD, PL, Raman, and contact angle. The treated fabric on the stitched PU foam with cotton yarns with bio-inspired jellyfish structure was used for heat localization and water transmission, simultaneously. The evaporation rate, enhancement, and conversion efficiency of the plasmonic SSG were 1.73 kg m−2 h−1, 179%, and ~ 98%, under one sun irradiation, respectively. The quality of the collected water was investigated via induced coupled plasma which presents the proper solar desalination (> 99.83% for filtration of Na+ ion). Regenerating features of the treated fabric along with the simple and cost-effective preparation method promises viable aspects of our system for large-scale applications.

A hierarchical porous aerohydrogel for enhanced water evaporation

Natural solar-powered steam generation provides a promising strategy to deal with deteriorating water resources. However, the practical applications of this strategy are limited by the tedious manufacturing of structures at micro-nano levels to concentrate heat and transport water to heat-localized regions. Herein, this work reports the fabrication of hierarchically porous aerohydrogel with enhanced light absorption and thermal localization at the air-solid interface. This aerohydrogel steam generator is fabricated by a simple yet controllable micropore generation approach to assemble air and hydrogel into hierarchically porous gas-solid hybrids. The tunable micropore size in a wide range from 99±49µm to 316±58μm not only enables contrasting sunlight absorptance (0.2 - 2.5µm) by reducing the reflection of solar light but also harnesses water transportation to the heating region via a capillary force-driven liquid flow. Therefore, a solar-vapor conversion efficiency of 91.3% under one sun irradiation was achieved using this aerohydrogel evaporator, reaching a ready evaporation rate of 2.76kg m−2 h−1 and 3.71kg m−2 h−1 under one and two sun irradiations, respectively. Our work provides a versatile and scalable approach to engineering porous hydrogels for highly efficient steam generation and opens an avenue for other potential practical applications based on this aerohydrogel.

Carbon coated vermiculite aerogels by quick pyrolysis as cost-effective and scalable solar evaporators

Purification of seawater and wastewater by solar-driven interfacial evaporation is a promising way to alleviate water scarcity. However, the high cost, complex fabrication methods, and short service life of the materials limit their practical application. Herein, a novel three-dimensional (3D) photothermal aerogel composited of vermiculite nanosheets and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) precursors have been prepared via freeze-drying and treated by quick pyrolysis for highly efficient solar-driven interfacial evaporation. The vermiculite nanosheets exfoliated from natural clay were used as the skeletal support of the composite aerogels, which are cheap and abundant natural materials. The introduced PVA improves the mechanical properties and produces carbon derivatives after pyrolysis, enhancing the light absorption capacity. The as-prepared aerogels have hierarchical porous structures, impressive mechanical properties, great light absorption capacity, and outstanding salt-rejection ability. The optimized aerogel not only exhibits a high evaporation rate of 2.64 kg m−2 h−1 (normalized to top and side surfaces) under 1.0 sun irradiation with excellent cost-effectiveness at 361.64 g h−1 $−1 but also shows superior performance in treating high-salt (15.0 wt%) brine water and organic dye-contained wastewater. The proposed method provides an attractive and effective way to prepare photothermal aerogels for efficient solar steam generation for mitigating water scarcity issues.