In view of the sustainable and environmentally friendly characteristics of solar energy, solar water evaporation has been identified as a promising approach to mitigate the global water crises. However, it is still a great challenge to develop a portable, flexible, scalable, and high-performance solar water evaporation material. Herein, a bilayer-structured solar water evaporation material consisting of a top multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) layer and a bottom polyphenylene sulfide/fibrillated cellulose (PPS/FC) paper was fabricated via a simple vacuum filtration technology for efficient solar water evaporation. The MWCNT layer performs as a light absorber with a high solar absorptance (∼93%) in the wavelength range from 400 to 1200 nm and good light-to-heat conversion capability, while the bottom layer (porous network-structured PPS/FC paper) exhibits excellent water transporting ability, high temperature stability, and good thermal insulating capability (0.0467 W m–1 K–1). Benefiting from the above advantages, an attractive water evaporation rate of 1.34 kg m–2 h–1 was achieved with near ∼95% efficiency under 1 sun irradiation (1 kW m–2). Moreover, the MWCNTs@PPS/FC paper maintains high solar evaporation efficiency after several cycles, indicating long-term durability and good reusability. Moreover, the collected clean water using the MWCNTs@PPS/FC paper from seawater of different salinities, simulated wastewater samples with different pH values or containing heavy metal ions, as well as industrial dyes, satisfy the drinkable water standard (defined by WHO), demonstrating excellent seawater desalination and wastewater purification capability. The advanced performances of the MWCNTs@PPS/FC paper could inspire novel paradigms of solar-driven water evaporation technologies in drinkable water collection.

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To improve the processability and properties of the poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS) fibers at room temperature and high temperatures, a series of composite fibers based on PPS and multiwalled carbon nanotubes were prepared by melt spinning. We researched the processability with a high‐pressure capillary rheometer, and the properties of the composite fibers were investigated in detail by scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, fiber sonic velocity measurement, and single‐fiber strength testing. The results show that the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) had good interfacial adhesion with PPS and dispersed homogeneously in the PPS matrix. When the shear rate was higher than 500 s−1, the oriented CNTs induced the orientation of PPS molecular chains; this resulted in a decline in the apparent viscosity and an increase in the orientation degree of the molecular chains. Meanwhile, the CNTs acted as nucleating agents to effectively improve the crystallization of PPS. The strength of the fibers at room temperature were improved by 28.8% after the addition of 0.2% CNTs, and the initial modulus was also significantly enhanced. The strength retention at 160 °C was promoted from 60.58 to 88.32% with the addition of 1.0% CNTs. The shrinking percentage decreased to almost zero from higher than 15%; this suggested that the CNTs could efficiently improve the dimensional stability at high temperatures. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44609.

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