Bioinspired, Sustainable, High‐Efficiency Solar Evaporators for Sewage Purification

Abstract

To alleviate the severe water crisis, an interfacial solar evaporator provides a promising method to produce freshwater. Although many superior solar evaporators present high evaporation rates by reducing the water evaporation enthalpy, adapting sustainable materials to construct high‐efficiency solar evaporators remains challenging. Herein, inspired by the corncob pith's structure and functional groups, interconnected porous cellulose hydrogel is proposed by crosslinking sustainable hydroxypropyl cellulose. Benefiting from the porous structure and abundant hydroxy group, the corncob pith/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and cellulose hydrogel/CNTs evaporators show a low evaporation enthalpy of 880.5 ± 42.1 and 1280.7 ± 57.8 J g−1 due to the reduced hydrogen bond numbers between water molecules and enable evaporation rates of 3.06 and 2.56 kg m−2 h−1, respectively. Moreover, the evaporators present superior purification performance for seawater and sewage, and show excellent anti‐biological fouling properties under light irradiation. It is anticipated that the bionic strategy would provide an in‐depth understanding of designing next‐generation sustainable solar evaporators in the framework of the dual‐carbon concept.

Cormorant-inspired macro-porous hydrogel thin film evaporators for boosting cost-effective solar water purification

“…4h and Table S1†). 10,11,36–47 The low cost of raw materials would make this evaporator promising for practical applications in the future.…”

Recent Advances of Green Electricity Generation: Potential in Solar Interfacial Evaporation System

“…Carbon‐based materials possess a broad spectrum of sunlight absorption capabilities, particularly in the visible and near‐infrared regions, making them ideal candidates for photothermal applications. [ 79,80 ] For instance, multiwalled carbon nanotubes, [ 81 ] graphene (G), [ 82 ] and graphene oxide (GO) [ 83 ] have gained widespread adoption. However, the relatively high radiation coefficient of carbon‐based materials can restrict their performance, necessitating the incorporation of complementary light absorbers to enhance their spectral range.…”

Multifunctional Solar Evaporator with Adjustable Island Structure Improves Performance and Salt Discharge Capacity of Desalination

“…[1,2] Interfacial solar steam generation (ISSG) is a promising desalination technology for obtaining clean water from seawater [3,4] and wastewater. [5][6][7] ISSG has advantages such as low cost, [8][9][10] high efficiency, [11][12][13][14][15][16] and zero carbon emissions [17][18][19][20] compared to traditional desalination technologies (such as multi-stage flash distillation). [21] The factors such as photothermal materials (PTMs), [22] local thermal management, [23][24][25][26] salt resistant structure [27][28][29][30][31] and water transport channels [32] are all needed to be considered for designing high performance evaporators.…”

“…[ 1,2 ] Interfacial solar steam generation (ISSG) is a promising desalination technology for obtaining clean water from seawater [ 3,4 ] and wastewater. [ 5–7 ] ISSG has advantages such as low cost, [ 8–10 ] high efficiency, [ 11–16 ] and zero carbon emissions [ 17–20 ] compared to traditional desalination technologies (such as multi‐stage flash distillation). [ 21 ]…”