Nature-inspired design: p- toluenesulfonic acid-assisted hydrothermally engineered wood for solar steam generation

All-weather-available electrothermal and solar–thermal wood-derived porous carbon-based steam generators for highly efficient water purification

“…1c), smaller than those of the natural wood due to structural shrinkage during the carbonization process. As demonstrated, 46 the smaller lumens would have stronger capillary forces and thus benefit the upward transport of water. The side-view of the ACW shows vertically aligned channels with low tortuosity (Fig.…”

“…[35][36][37][38][39] As precursors of carbon materials, natural woods with hierarchical porous structures and inherent water transport channels are promising for fabricating solar-thermal water evaporation devices. [40][41][42][43][44][45][46] As natural woods cannot be directly applied for solar steam generation because of their poor solar light absorption, they are usually carbonized to black appearances for enhancing their solar light absorption capability. 47 However, carbonization causes a reduction in the hydrophilicity and hence adversely affects the upward transport of water.…”

Anisotropic Evaporator with a T‐Shape Design for High‐Performance Solar‐Driven Zero‐Liquid Discharge

“…As shown in Figure 3f, T‐shape C‐L‐wood evaporator exhibits excellent solar driven desalination performance, including high evaporation rate and efficiency under 1 sun irradiation. [ 36–43 ] We have also compared the evaporation rate of our T‐shape C‐L‐wood with other reported evaporators. The detailed information is shown in Table S1.…”

“…Owning to the excellent water transport, light absorption and thermal management capability, our anisotropic T‐shape evaporator achieved a high evaporation rate of 2.43 kg m −2 h −1 with a solar thermal efficiency of 83.6% under 1sun, which is supreme in wood‐based solar steam generation materials under 1 sun irradiation. [ 36–43 ] In addition, the T‐shape device could continuously operate for 60 h with edge salt crystallized and collected, demonstrating its long‐term durability via an effective zero‐liquid discharge process. With a unique anisotropic structure, our T‐shape solar evaporator provides a low‐cost, efficient, stable, and environment‐friendly ZLD strategy, which has a great potential for wastewater treatment and other applications requiring guided energy/mass transport.…”

Co‐Hydrothermal Carbonization of Cotton Stalks and MnO2 for Direct Solar Steam Generation with High Efficiency

“…Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) hydrolyzes cellulose hemicellulose to produce –OH, –COOH, and other oxygen‐containing functional groups, which increase the hydrophilicity of the material. [ 34 ] However, the carbonization intensity of hydrochar is relatively low due to the mild temperature (180–300 °C) and autogenous pressure (0–1.5 Mpa), [ 35 ] so it has a weak light absorption and conversion ability. Other researchers have used acid‐assisted HTC to promote the carbonization, which can then be applied to solar water evaporation.…”