A hydrophobic surface enabled salt-blocking 2D Ti₃C₂MXene membrane for efficient and stable solar desalination

Abstract

A general strategy for hydrophobic 2D Ti3C2MXene membrane fabrication for efficient and stable solar desalination.

In situ chemo‐polymerized polypyrrole‐coated filter paper for high‐efficient solar vapor generation

“…1 Solar energy is considered as a green, inexhaustible, and viable energy resource that can be used in a variety of fields, such as photovoltaics, photosynthesis, and solar thermal conversion. [5][6][7][8][9] Therefore, in order to achieve higher solar-tovapor conversion efficiency and improve water evaporation rate, researchers are paying more and more attention to designing a new type of solar steam generation system, which can minimize heat loss during the heating process and enhance the solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency. [2][3][4] Although solar energy is a promising source of energy, the low efficiency of solar-to-steam conversion has greatly hampered the practical application of solar energy, such as solar evaporation and water desalination, because of the large amount of optical and systemic heat loss in conventional distillation processes.…”

Harnessing Solar‐Driven Photothermal Effect toward the Water–Energy Nexus

“…[95] As expected, the evaporation rate of janus evaporator was almost invariable after 45 min running, indicating excellent salt-resistant ability, whereas the evaporation rate of conventional evaporator (i.e., hydrophilic solar absorber) slowed down by 15% because of obvious salts accumulation on the surface observed in SEM images. In addition, hydrophobic trimethoxy(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl)silane (PFDTMS) [142] and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT-PSS) [143] were also used to modify d-Ti 3 C 2 nanosheets and carbon materials to prepare hydrophobic solar absorbers, respectively, endowing the water evaporator with excellent saltresistant ability applied in long-term solar desalination. In order to minimize the adverse effects on evaporation, hydrophobic modified layers or technologies need to obey some features as follows: 1) enough transparent hydrophobic layers to enable intrinsic optical property without any losses, 2) conformal function of hydrophobic layers to prevent the clogging of the inherent channels, ensuring adequate water supplies and fast release of vapors.…”

Solar‐Inspired Water Purification Based on Emerging 2D Materials: Status and Challenges

“…b) Schematic illustration of the salt‐blocking Ti 3 C 2 membrane based evaporation device . Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2018, Royal Society of Chemistry.…”

“…The pervaporation membrane fabricated using Ti 3 C 2 was first reported by Liu et al The hydrophilic property was found to give a high water flux through an efficient salt rejection process . The evaporation performance of the hydrophobic Ti 3 C 2 MXene membranes are further investigated by Zhao et al The Ti 3 C 2 MXene is modified by trimethoxy silane, and commercial filter membrane is used for water supply (Figure b). Thanks to the high light‐conversion ability, surface engineering, and abundant water supply channels, a remarkable solar evaporation performance can be obtained, including high solar steam‐conversion efficiency of 71% and evaporation rate of 1.31 kg m −2 h −1 .…”

“…A challenge for evaporation system is the salt crystallization on the evaporation membrane surface during the evaporation process, which blocks further evaporation . To tackle this problem, a hydrophobic MXene membrane, which is composed of trimethoxy silane decorated Ti 3 C 2 NS, was proposed for salt self‐cleaning . Compared with the hydrophilic Ti 3 C 2 membrane (Figure a1), there was no residue salt after 24 h evaporation (Figure a2).…”