Manipulating light trapping and water vaporization enthalpy <i>via</i> porous hybrid nanohydrogels for enhanced solar-driven interfacial water evaporation with antibacterial ability

Li, Yaling; Zhao, Mingyu; Xu, Yunshi; Chen, Leilei; Jiang, Ting; Jiang, Weicun; Yang, Shuguang; Wang, Yi

doi:10.1039/c9ta09820h

Cited by 44 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The internal pore structure of the hydrogels affects the rate of water transport 44–47 . To observe the internal and surface structure of LRBH, the morphology and microstructure of LRBH before and after the introduction of PPy were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging (Figure 2A–C and Figure S2).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light‐responsive bilayered hydrogel for freshwater production from surface soil moisture

Zhang

Wang

Hou

et al. 2021

EcoMat

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The search and the utilization of alternative water resources to produce freshwater are highly important to the water shortage, especially in arid and desert regions. In these areas, the surface soil moisture (SSM) can be a promising water source, whereas its extraction and following release remain challenging. In this study, a light‐responsive bilayered hydrogel (LRBH) is designed to produce freshwater from SSM, which is obtained by the copolymerization of N‐isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and acrylic acid (AA) and in‐situ surface polymerization of polypyrrole (PPy). By careful optimization of the ratio of NIPAM and AA, the water absorption capacity of LRBH is significantly improved with the water absorption of 4.4 g/g even in the sandy soil with an extremely low water content (~3 wt%). The PPy in the top layer of the LRBH can absorb solar light to heat the hydrogel at daytime so that the temperature of the hydrogel can quickly rise above the lower critical solution temperature of LRBH. As a result, the freshwater is quickly expelled from the LRBH. Under simulated solar light irradiation, 68.6% of all absorbed water within LRBH can be released within 20 min. The current study provides an effective and facile strategy for SSM capture and suitable systems for the generation of freshwater in arid or desert regions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light‐responsive bilayered hydrogel for freshwater production from surface soil moisture

Zhang

Wang

Hou

et al. 2021

EcoMat

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“…Despite the progress made in advancing the performance of the solar evaporators, the solar evaporation rates of these materials are limited to 1.47 kg m −2 h −1 (KMH) under a solar flux of 1-Sun due to the relatively high intrinsic energy demand for water evaporation (>40 kJ mol −1 ). [23,333] Hydrogel-based solar evaporators have been developed using a range of synthetic polymers (e.g., PAM, PSA, poly(sodium p-styrenesulfonate), polyhydroxypropyl acrylate, PVA, PILs) [42,53,87,88,97,132,334,335] and natural polymers (e.g., agarose, cellulose, konjac glucomannan, carboxymethylcellulose, alginate, chitosan) [311,312,332,[336][337][338][339] incorporated with solar absorbers such as CNTs, [87,101,333,340] graphene/graphite, [97,341] plasmonic nanoparticles, [338] metal organic frameworks, [337] poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), [334] PANI, [42,342] PPy, [21,99] rGO, [312] Mxene, [86] Ti 2 O 3 , [343] MoS 2 , [344] CuS, [336] and carbon black particles [313] among others. As will be discussed in detail below, compared to conventional solar evaporators, hydrogels generally show better solar evaporation efficiency due to their: i) hydrophilicity, ii) tailorable pore structures, ii) presence of bound water, and iii) presence of abundant functionalities that engender improved water transport, efficient utilization of heat generated, mitigation of salt scaling, and impartment of multifunctionalities (Fi...…”

Section: Interfacial Solar-driven Evaporationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The smaller thermal mass of polymer-bound water surrounding the solar absorber further enhance heat concentration that enables efficient in situ utilization of the converted heat. [97,101,337,343,344] Moreover, the polymeric chains wrapped around the light absorber can also act as the energy-insulating media to reduce the convective heat loss of water, achieving the confinement of thermal energy to the water clusters filled in the molecular meshes. [14,21] The presence of intermediate water, on the other hand, results in the reduction in the energy demand for the evaporation of water trapped in the hydrogels compared to that of bulk water.…”

Section: Interfacial Solar-driven Evaporationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymeric Hydrogels—A Promising Platform in Enhancing Water Security for a Sustainable Future

Loo

Vásquez

Athanassiou

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Inter

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anthropogenic activities that have led to saline intrusion and contamination of the existing freshwater sources, making the current approaches for water treatment even more difficult and costly. [2][3][4] This, in combination with the continuously rising global water demand, results in a rather pessimistic prediction that an additional 2000 billion m 3 of freshwater supply will be required by 2030 to meet the global demand, assuming no gains on the current state of water-production capacity and efficiency. [5,6] As the existing freshwater sources are being depleted, there is a growing need for utilization of a broader range of water sources beyond the conventional ones, that is, brackish water, seawater, wastewater, and atmospheric moisture. [7] On top of that, there is a call for a greater focus on enhancing water security, particularly for the poor and vulnerable populations, as water scarcity is more critical in these geographical regions due to the lack of access to conventional infrastructure and power sources to produce clean water. [1,8,9] This, in addition to the increasing intensity and frequency of climate-related disasters, present unique demands, such as simple and off-grid operations, for water technologies (WTs) that can be deployed to manage the constraints imposed by these circumstances. [10]

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“…4 Recently, solar-driven interfacial water evaporation, which minimizes thermal dissipation and applies most of the heat to the liquid-vapor phase transition by concentrating heat at the water-air interface, has been developed to improve the evaporation efficiency of water. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Generally, most of the reported solar-driven interfacial evaporators comprise three parts [18][19] (Scheme 1a1): 1) a photothermal layer with broadband light absorption and high photothermal conversion, 2) a floatable supporting layer with a low thermal conductivity, and 3) a hydrophilic water channel either on the outside or in the middle of the supporting layer that ensures a continuous water supply to the photothermal layer. Although many highefficiency solar-driven interfacial evaporators have been developed, in practical applications, the photothermal layer or water channel can be damaged by scratching or corrosion, thereby deteriorating the water evaporation efficiency (Scheme 1a2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Healing Hydrophilic Porous Photothermal Membranes for Durable and Highly Efficient Solar-Driven Interfacial Water Evaporation

Weng

et al. 2022

CCS Chem

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It is highly desirable to develop a solar-driven interfacial water evaporator with a self-healing ability and highefficiency water evaporation performance for water distillation and desalination, but it is still considerably challenging. Herein, by exploiting the advantages of the self-healing hydrophilic polymer, a self-healing hydrophilic porous photothermal (SHPP) membrane is fabricated by the curing of a mixture of a self-healing hydrophilic polymer, carbon black, and NaCl, followed by the removal of NaCl in water. As the SHPP membrane can simultaneously serve as a photothermal layer and water transportation channel, a solar-driven interfacial evaporator can be readily fabricated by the assembly of the SHPP membrane with a polyethylene foam. The SHPP membrane-based evaporator exhibits a water evaporation rate of 1.68 kg m -2 h -1 and an energy efficiency of 97.3%. These values are superior to those obtained using solar-driven interfacial evaporators with a selfhealing capability. Notably, by reforming hydrogen bonds between fracture surfaces, the SHPP membrane can regain its structural integrity after breaking, making the SHPP membrane-based evaporator the first evaporator that can completely and repeatedly heal water evaporation capacity after physical damage. Herein, the potential of SHPP membranes for developing stable, long-lasting, and high-efficiency solar-driven interfacial water evaporators is highlighted.

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Manipulating light trapping and water vaporization enthalpy via porous hybrid nanohydrogels for enhanced solar-driven interfacial water evaporation with antibacterial ability

Abstract: Porous MoS2 nanoflower-containing hydrogels are proposed as enhanced light trapping and antibacterial photothermal hotspots and are facilely deposited on a hydrophilic MCE substrate for highly efficient solar-driven interfacial water evaporation.

Cited by 44 publications

References 36 publications

Light‐responsive bilayered hydrogel for freshwater production from surface soil moisture

Light‐responsive bilayered hydrogel for freshwater production from surface soil moisture

Polymeric Hydrogels—A Promising Platform in Enhancing Water Security for a Sustainable Future

Self-Healing Hydrophilic Porous Photothermal Membranes for Durable and Highly Efficient Solar-Driven Interfacial Water Evaporation

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