Advanced Fiber Materials, Volume. 6, Issue 4, 00409(2024)

Interconnected Porous Fabric-Based Scalable Evaporator with Asymmetric Wetting Properties for High-Yield and Salt-Rejecting Solar Brine Treatment

Lipei Ren1... Qian Zhang1,*, Guomeng Zhao1, Tao Chen1, Yingao Wang1, Xingfang Xiao1, Hongjun Yang1,**, Ning Xu2,*** and Weilin Xu1 |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, People’s Republic of China
  • 2National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People’s Republic of China
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    Solar-driven interfacial evaporation has been considered as a promising approach for treating high-salinity brine, which mitigates ecological pollution as well as produces fresh water. Despite the extensive research efforts, challenges remain regarding the stably high-yield solar treatment of high-salinity water on a large scale. Here, we demonstrate an interconnected porous fabric-based scalable evaporator with asymmetric wetting properties fabricated by weaving technique for high-efficiency and salt-rejecting solar high-salinity brine treatment. Three-dimensional interconnected micropores ensure effective convection-induced fast vapor diffusion, leading to a high evaporation rate in the natural environment with the convective flow. The Janus structure effectively separates absorption and evaporation surfaces for stable salt resistance even under fast evaporation. It is observed that the evaporator achieves a high evaporation rate of 2.48 kg m-2 h-1 under 1-sun illumination and airflow of 3 m s-1 when treating 15 wt% saline. Notably, the outdoor experiment demonstrates that there is neither salt precipitation on the surface nor a decrement in evaporation rate during the 5-day evaporation until water and solute have completely been separated. The interconnected porous fabric with asymmetric wetting properties can be easily and massively produced by industrialized weaving techniques, showing great potential for scalable and efficient solar water treatment of high-salinity brine and industrial wastewater.

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    Lipei Ren, Qian Zhang, Guomeng Zhao, Tao Chen, Yingao Wang, Xingfang Xiao, Hongjun Yang, Ning Xu, Weilin Xu. Interconnected Porous Fabric-Based Scalable Evaporator with Asymmetric Wetting Properties for High-Yield and Salt-Rejecting Solar Brine Treatment[J]. Advanced Fiber Materials, 2024, 6(4): 00409

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    Paper Information

    Category: Research Articles

    Received: Nov. 13, 2023

    Accepted: Mar. 17, 2024

    Published Online: Nov. 14, 2024

    The Author Email: Zhang Qian (qzhang@wtu.edu.cn), Yang Hongjun (h_j.yang@yahoo.com), Xu Ning (nxu@nju.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.1007/s42765-024-00409-5

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