Natural Cellulose Fiber-Derived Photothermal Aerogel for Efficient and Sustainable Solar Desalination

Abstract

Aerogels are becoming a promising platform to fabricate photothermal materials for use in solar steam generation (SSG), which have remarkable application potential in solar desalination, due to their excellent thermal management, salt resistance, and considerable water evaporation rate. In this work, a novel photothermal material is fabricated by forming a suspension between sugarcane bagasse fibers (SBF) and poly(vinyl alcohol), tannic acid (TA), and Fe 3+ solutions via hydrogen bonds of hydroxyl groups. After freeze drying, the fabricated SBF aerogel-based photothermal (SBFAP) material possesses a 3D interconnected porous microstructure, which could enhance water transportation ability, reduce thermal conductivity, and quickly dissolve salt crystals on the SBFAP surface. Thanks to the formation of micro/nanosized complexes between TA and Fe 3+ ions on the SBFAP material, the SBFAP exhibits high light capture and water evaporation rate (2.28 kg m −2 h −1 ). In particular, due to strong hydrogen bonding and the SBF, the SBFAP material is reinforced, thereby exhibiting excellent structural stability in seawater. Moreover, the high salt tolerance of SBFAP favors its high desalination performance for at least 76 days of continuous evaporation under actual conditions. This research paves the way for the fabrication of natural cellulose fiber-based photothermal materials for application in solar desalination.

Polyhedral Oligomeric Sesquioxane Cross-Linked Chitosan-Based Multi-Effective Aerogel Preparation and Its Water-Driven Recovery Mechanism

“…Figure 4f shows the water transport rate of the aerogel, and the aerogel end is vertically contacted to the water surface to record the time required for the water to rise to 20 mm. It can be seen that the water transport rate of the pure CS aerogel is 1.69 mm s −1 , while that of the PCS with 30 wt% POSS reaches 2.67 mm s −1 , which is higher than the other reported water transport layer [59,60]. The enhanced water transport rate may be due to the introduction of hydrophilic hydroxyl groups in the chain EP-POSS cross-linked with Figure 4f shows the water transport rate of the aerogel, and the aerogel end is vertically contacted to the water surface to record the time required for the water to rise to 20 mm.…”

Investigation of granular natural stone materials as photothermal absorbers for sustainable and environmentally friendly energy harvesting

“…Olivernesaraj and Sethuramalingam [2] proved that a rough surface structure could increase the light-trapping effect. Nguyen et al [3] and Zhang et al [4] demonstrated that porous structures increased the light-trapping effect. Ultimately, the light-trapping effect increased the absorbance and decreased the reflectivity of absorber materials [5].…”

Enhanced Total Contactless Photothermal Desalination by Translucent Thin Film Coating of Crystalline Nanocellulose

“…Generally, studies have been reported, such as Politano et al, prepared a nanostructured photothermal membrane distillation device consisting of a polymer with metallic nanoparticles, and Cao et al showed a superhydrophobic fabric with PVA/GO hydrogel self-assembly for an interfacial photothermal device of desalination and pollutant removal. , Similarly, Huang et al reported a self-floating bilayer photothermal paper made up of MWCNT and polyphenylene sulfide for rapid transportation of water and heat localization . Nguyen et al used sugar cane bagasse fiber aerogel-based photothermal (SBFAP) with its 3D interconnected porous microstructure for seawater desalination . Yang et al creatively designed a mass transfer bridge (MTB) architecture with a high salt rejection capacity .…”