Manipulating unidirectional fluid transportation to drive sustainable solar water extraction and brine-drenching induced energy generation

Zhang, Yaoxin; Zhang, Hong; Xiong, Tao; Qu, Hao; Koh, J. Justin; Nandakumar, Dilip Krishna; Wang, John; Tan, Swee Ching

doi:10.1039/d0ee01572e

Cited by 175 publications

(112 citation statements)

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“…This kind of fluid photothermal structure was proposed by Tan and co‐workers in 2020. [ 111 ] They used treated commercial carbon cloth as an absorber, and both the inlet and outlet used hydrophilic fabrics to ensure efficient water transmission (Figure 8c). The photothermal structure of the one‐direction fluid transport reached an evaporation rate of 1.63 kg m −2 h −1 .…”

Section: Salt Mitigation Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt Mitigation Strategies of Solar‐Driven Interfacial Desalination

Wang

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

167

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Solar‐driven interfacial desalination (SDID), which is based on localized heating and interfacial evaporation, provides an opportunity for developing environmentally friendly and cost‐effective seawater thermal desalination. However, localized heating and rapidly generated interfacial steam may cause salt to accumulate on the evaporator's surface and block the channel of steam evaporation. Salt accumulation inevitably reduces the light absorption and service period of the solar absorber, resulting in a significant decrease in evaporation efficiency over time. Salt accumulation makes it difficult to produce SDID devices with high energy efficiency and long‐term stability for large‐scale use in remote poverty‐stricken areas. Therefore, the exploration of novel and effective strategies for addressing salt accumulation through both material design and structural engineering has attracted more attention in recent years. This review presents an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art advancements in salt‐resistant photothermal evaporation and discusses the critical issues for achieving salt mitigation SDID, focusing on the classification of salt mitigation strategies based on photothermal evaporation configurations, the basic mechanism of salt mitigation, and the architectural design of photothermal materials. Finally, the important challenges and prospects of SDID are discussed to providing a meaningful roadmap to efficient salt mitigation SDID.

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Section: Salt Mitigation Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt Mitigation Strategies of Solar‐Driven Interfacial Desalination

Wang

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

167

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“…A comparative analysis of both optical morphology of muddy wastewater and condensed water as illustrated in Figure 6 c (before) and Figure 6 d (after). Nonetheless, number modern salt rejection strategies can be applied for desalination of impure water as reported [ 39 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Super Hydrophilic Activated Carbon Decorated Nanopolymer Foam for Scalable, Energy Efficient Photothermal Steam Generation, as an Effective Desalination System

et al. 2020

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Clean water scarcity is still an intense, prolonged global issue that needs to be resolved urgently. The solar steam generation has shown great potential with a high energy conversion efficiency for clean water production from seawater and wastewater. However, the high evaporation rate of water cannot be preserved due to the inevitable fouling of solar absorbers. Herein, a self-floatable and super hydrophilic solar-driven steam generator composed of activated carbon coated melamine foam (ACM). The deposited ACM photothermal layer exhibits outstanding solar absorption (92%) and an efficient evaporation rate of 1.27 kg m−2 h−1, along with excellent photothermal conversion efficiency (80%) as compared to commercially available primitive solar stills. The open porous assembly of melamine foam equipped with 80% flexibility (0.8 MPa) enabled smooth water transport and sustain heat accumulation within the matrix. The thermal insulation of ACM is 10 times greater than pure water. Moreover, open porous assembly of designed solar-powered steam generator rejects salt ions as well as volatile organic compounds efficiently. The low-cost and facile fabrication of photothermal based water production presents a potential solution to single step drinking water supply from various resources of the sea, the lakes and mixtures of emulsified oil and industrial wastewater.

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“…2d). 15,34,35,[65][66][67][68] For instance, the absorber could simply comprise commercially available spectrally selective surfaces, 15,28,34 low-cost black paints, 69 and even photovoltaic (PV) cells. 35 Meanwhile, the evaporators could utilize conventional low-cost wicking materials without specific optical properties such as fabric 70 and paper.…”

Section: Evaporator Configurations Using Thermal Localizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, for 13 back-side evaporators operated under dilute solar flux (e.g., one sun illumination), recent experimental studies show that water transport capability is still not a primary limiting factor. 28,34,67,70…”

Section: δ ℎmentioning

confidence: 99%