Solar vapor generation is a renewable
and hopeful technology for
obtaining freshwater from underground water, dyeing wastewater, and
seawater. Herein, hierarchical MnO2 nanosheets grown on
cotton fabric (Mn-CF) have been developed for solar-driven water evaporation.
Black MnO2 nanosheets and nanoflowers are in situ chemically
deposited on cotton fabric (CF), which leads to a solar absorption
ability as high as 95% from 300 to 2500 nm. Due to the synergistic
effect of the super-hydrophilic CF and hierarchical MnO2 nanosheets, Mn-CF results in a water evaporation rate of 1.40 kg
m–2 h–1 with the photothermal
conversion efficiency of 87.48% under 1 sun illumination (1 kW m–2). During the desalination test, Mn-CF can be renewed
by washing off the steamed salts through a simple ultrasonication
or hand-washing. Moreover, Mn-CF remains stable after 40 cycles, each
lasting 1 h under 1 sun irradiation. A Mn-CF-based solar steam generator
(Mn-CF-SSG) enables to effectively purifying simulated dyeing wastewater
and seawater using natural sunlight. The cost of preparing 1 m2 Mn-CF is about $1.5. This work provides a simple method to
prepare flexible and washable Mn-CF-SSG with low-cost and high efficiency
that has huge potential for practical application of seawater desalination.