Poly(N-phenylglycine)-Based Bioinspired System for Stably and Efficiently Enhancing Solar Evaporation

Abstract

Realizing high-efficiency solar evaporation has great potential for purification of sewage and seawater desalination. However, continuous water supply, solar energy conversion, and thermal management must be further studied to improve water evaporation. In this research, inspired by the Amazon water lily, an interfacial water-trapping tridimensional structure solar evaporator was developed to achieve continuous supply of water from the water-trapping layer and three-dimensional heat distribution management. First, an artificial photothermal membrane with poly­(N-phenylglycine) (PNPG) was conveniently prepared by vacuum filtration. Then, combined with the three-dimensional heat distribution management design and the water-trapping layer for continuous supply of water, more optimized energy utilization and efficient interface heating were realized. Besides, because the novel nanoscale PNPG has excellent light capture performance and the absorbed solar energy can be concentrated in the water-trapping layer, the solar evaporation is more effective, showing higher energy efficiency (93.5%) and higher evaporation rate (1.72 kg m–2 h–1) under 1 sun. A special structure is designed to minimize energy loss and better regulate the connection between water evaporation, solar energy conversion, and thermal regulation. According to the results, these bioinspired solar evaporators can provide new ideas for designing high-efficiency solar evaporator structures and provide new opportunities for practical applications.

Integrated Multi-Layered Fabric with Tunable Water Supply to the Photothermal Conversion Layer for an Efficient Solar Water Evaporation

“…It should be noted that the concentration of the salt in water was 3.5 % wt before irradiation every day and the sample remained wet during evaporation for three consecutive days. As shown in Figure b, the mass loss of brine gradually decreases from 13.54 to 11.95 kg m –2 , which shows that the IMLF5 prepared in the present work has good cycle stability …”

Modelling heat and mass transfer in solar evaporation systems

“…Due to the natural shape of some materials, it is not possible to use them alone for evaporation and therefore an additional material must be used to maintain the evaporative surface above the water [5,[31][32][33][34][35]. This can be a standard foam for thermal insulation, which has the ability to float on water but also allows less heat exchange with water due to its very low thermal conductivity.…”

Adsorption Studies on Ag(I) Using Poly(N-phenylglycine) Membrane and Application in Practical Silver Recycling

“…The first peak at 1669 cm –1 belongs to the CO of carboxyl groups . The adjacent second and third peaks, at 1574 and 1493 cm –1 , are attributed to the stretching vibrations of CC at the quinonoid ring and benzenoid ring, respectively. ,, The fourth peak at 1303 cm –1 is characteristic of the C–N bond in the benzenoid amine. , The last two peaks located at 1145 and 807 cm –1 are assigned to the quinone ring and 1,4 (para)-substituted phenyl ring structure, respectively, confirming the synthesis of PNPG. , Moreover, by comparison of the FTIR spectra of NPG monomer and synthesized PNPG (Figure S1), the most obvious change was that there were characteristic peaks of 1,4 (para)-substituted phenyl ring structure (807 cm –1 ) and quinone ring structure (1145 cm –1 ) in PNPG, indicating the successful synthesis of PNPG as well.…”

“…The first peak at 1669 cm −1 belongs to the CO of carboxyl groups. 15 The adjacent second and third peaks, at 1574 and 1493 cm −1 , are attributed to the stretching vibrations of CC at the quinonoid ring and benzenoid ring, respectively. 15,18,19 The fourth peak at 1303 cm −1 is characteristic of the C−N bond in the benzenoid amine.…”

“…First, PNPG was synthesized by the polymerization of NPG under acidic conditions, with APS serving as an oxidant (Figure a). , Here, 2.0 g of NPG and 3.2 g of APS were each dissolved in 100 mL of H 2 SO 4 (0.1 mol L –1 ), forming two mixed solutions. The APS–H 2 SO 4 mixture was then added dropwise to the NPG–H 2 SO 4 mixture and stirred in an ice–water bath (about 0 °C) for 24 h. The products were separated by filtration and washed with deionized water.…”