The first nanoscale luminescent metal-organic framework has been realized for the straightforward and highly sensitive sensing of nitroaromatic explosives in enthanol solution.
Solar
steam generation is considered to be a promising strategy for sustainable
clean water supply. An easily made and robust solar still can practically
meet any contingency in wilderness survival, compared to high-cost
and delicate solar thermal materials, for example, plasmonic metals,
carbon nanotubes, or graphene-based materials. Inspired by rice plants
with high transpiration, we develop a universal solar steam-generation
device from wasted rice straw for robust clean water production. The
upper leaves of rice straw are carbonized and composited with bacterial
cellulose to function as a superior light absorber and the lower culms
are designed as excellent water pumps. The unique capillary structures
and multilevel geometrical structures of the rice culms contribute
to their outstanding water pumping capacity for surface evaporation,
resulting in an evaporation rate of 1.2 kg m–2 h–1 with 75.8% conversion efficiency. The rice straw-derived
solar still has a daily clean water yield of 6.4–7.9 kg m–2 on sunny days and 4.6–5.6 kg m–2 on cloudy days over 14 days of operation. More attention-grabbing
aspect is that this evaporation device is applicable to various water-bearing
media, for example, sand, soil, and seawater, to collect clean water
with a stable evaporation performance, and the unique multilevel structures
of the culms make great contribution to the unimpeded water channels.
By turning “waste” to “wealth,” this project
shines significant light on a facilely fabricated, robust, and efficient
solar still, especially designed for urgent priority in wilderness
survival.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.