Improving evaporation rate is extremely
important to promote the
application of solar steam generation in clean water production through
seawater desalination. However, the theoretical evaporation rate limit
of a normal two-dimensional (2D) photothermal evaporator is only about
1.46 kg m–2 h–1. While 3D evaporators
can break the limit, they require much more raw materials. In this
work, an effective approach for achieving high-yield solar steam generation via the synergy of 2D nanostructure-embedded all-in-one
hybrid hydrogel evaporator and surface patterning is reported. This
improved surface-patterned evaporator is able to simultaneously lower
the enthalpy of vaporization and induce the Marangoni effect near
the evaporation surface, thus delivering a high evaporation rate of
3.62 kg m–2 h–1, which is more
than twice the theoretical limit of the normal 2D photothermal evaporator.
This hybrid hydrogel offers a cost-effective and energy-efficient
pathway to mitigate clean water shortages.
Solar‐powered water evaporation provides a promising strategy for eco‐friendly and cost‐effective freshwater production. The exploration of high‐performance photothermal materials and the rational design of evaporation architectures are crucial in promoting solar steam generation efficiency. Herein, multidimensional MXene‐based composites with well‐organized heterojunction nanostructures are proposed as bifunctional photothermal materials. The solar thermal conversion, chemical stability, and photocatalysis degradation properties are enhanced by anchoring Co3O4 nanoparticles on delaminated ultrathin MXene nanosheets, compared with that of Ti3C2 MXene. Based on these advantages, an integrated 3D spherical evaporator is constructed using the Co3O4/Ti3C2 MXene‐based fabric. The evaporator shows its distinct advantages in maximizing the harvest of the hybrid energy from sunlight and the ambient environment, making it ideal for solar steam generation and synergetic water purification. An extremely high evaporation rate of 1.89 kg m−2 h−1 with a corresponding light‐to‐vapor energy conversion efficiency beyond the theoretical limit (130.4%) is achieved. More importantly, while the evaporation rate of the 2D evaporator significantly recedes upon the oblique sunlight irradiation, the evaporation rate of the 3D spherical evaporator is constantly high at different incident angles of sunlight, which satisfies the requirement of practical applications under moving sun.
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