Plasmonic Titanium Nitride Nano-enabled Membranes with High Structural Stability for Efficient Photothermal Desalination

Abstract

Herein, we demonstrate the desalination performance of a solar-driven membrane distillation (MD) process, where upon light illumination, a highly localized heating of plasmonic titanium nitride nanoparticles (TiN NPs) immobilized on a hydrophobic membrane provides the thermal driving force for the MD operation. The engineered TiN photothermal membrane induces vapor generation directly at the feed–membrane interface upon solar irradiation, thereby eliminating the need to heat the entire bulk feed water. The results indicate that the average vapor flux through the TiN photothermal membrane without any auxiliary feed heating was recorded as 1.01 L m–2 h–1, which corresponds to the solar-thermal efficiency of 66.7% under 1 sun solar irradiance. The superior performance of the photothermal MD process is attributed to the broadband optical absorption and excellent light-to-heat conversion properties of the plasmonic TiN NP layer, which enabled efficient interfacial water heating at the membrane surface and increased the net driving force for vapor transport. Results also reveal the high mechanical stability of the TiN photothermal coating layer during long-term photothermal MD operations. We believe that the TiN photothermal membranes fabricated using a relatively inexpensive and nontoxic material via the simple technique with high stability and photothermal conversion efficiency will provide a path forward for developing the solar-driven MD applications.

Prediction and Optimization of Thermal Conductivity and Viscosity of Stable Plasmonic TiN Nanofluid Using Response Surface Method For Solar Thermal Application

“…Deshmukh et al [11] did a comprehensive study on nanoparticles, nanofluids, and their applications. Farid et al [12] The highest values of Von Mises stress and shear stress observed at all temperatures. Chan et al [14] examined the cocytoxity and antibacterial performance of TiN nanoparticles and laser nitrided titanium alloys.…”

Engineering Surface Wettability to Alleviate Membrane Scaling in Photothermal Membrane Distillation

“…In the wet state, the water layer on the membrane surface may reflect or absorb parts of the incident photons and reduce the number of effective photons reaching the membrane surface. 38,40 As a result, the temperature increases on the wet membrane surfaces were all relatively lower. In addition, the solar evaporation performances of asdeveloped membranes were tested using a laboratory device (Figure S4) under 1 kW m −2 simulated sunlight.…”

Plasmonic Phenomena in Membrane Distillation

“…An advantage of this system is that the vapor can be condensed inside the module. In contrast, the main disadvantages came from the high conductive heat losses, which reduce the temperature difference across the membrane surface [ 90 , 91 , 92 ]. AGMD-based PMD: In this process, only the feed solution is in direct contact with the membrane surface, and an air gap is introduced between the membrane and condensing surface.…”