Monolithic all-weather solar-thermal interfacial membrane evaporator

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2022.137893
• Publication Date: 2022-07-02T15:47:45Z
• Authors: Jing Zhang; Zhengtong Li; Taotao Meng; Shaohong Zang; Chao Yang; Xinzhi Luo; Hengwei Wang; Jing Chen; Fei Jing; Chengbing Wang; Haolan Xu; Yingtang Zhou
• Keywords: Salt rejection; Joule -heating effect; 13. Climate action; Hydrovoltaic effects; Solar -thermal interfacial membrane evaporation; All-weather desalination; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; 6. Clean water; 0104 chemical sciences

Salt blocking and low evaporation efficiency under weak sun irradiation are two obstacles of solar-thermal seawater desalination in the industrialization process. Herein, the challenges are overcome by a solar-thermal interfacial membrane evaporation (STIME) system, i.e., combining merits of advanced thermal management of interfacial evaporation and salt insulation of membrane evaporation, simultaneously achieving salt-resistance, hydrovoltaic generation, and all-weather vapor generation. By employing a hybrid system based on sandwich -like MXene-graphene oxide-MXene (MGM) on a commercial PVDF membrane (MGM@PVDF), we achieved an evaporation efficiency up to 92.5% and without any salt accumulation for 10 h at 10 wt% NaCl solution. Moreover, the system can also be driven by Joule-heating effect for water evaporation under dark or cloudy conditions The maximum evaporation rate of this system driven by sunlight (0.5 sun) and electricity (36 V) can reach 10.5 kg m -2h- 1. Apart from water evaporation, the MGM@PVDF modules possess excellent molecular sieve effect and can pretreat dye pollution before desalination. Furthermore, the MGM@PVDF also exhibits excellent anti-bacterial effect and biocompatibility, ensuring ecological balance during real-world applications. Thus, the developed STIME system provides a novel avenue for all-weather steam generation to constantly provide safe drinking water. Refereed/Peer-reviewed