Nano-Micro Letters, Volume. 15, Issue 1, 214(2023)

Micro–Nano Water Film Enabled High-Performance Interfacial Solar Evaporation

Zhen Yu... Yuqing Su, Ruonan Gu, Wei Wu, Yangxi Li and Shaoan Cheng* |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People’s Republic of China
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    Interfacial solar evaporation holds great promise to address the freshwater shortage. However, most interfacial solar evaporators are always filled with water throughout the evaporation process, thus bringing unavoidable heat loss. Herein, we propose a novel interfacial evaporation structure based on the micro–nano water film, which demonstrates significantly improved evaporation performance, as experimentally verified by polypyrrole- and polydopamine-coated polydimethylsiloxane sponge. The 2D evaporator based on the as-prepared sponge realizes an enhanced evaporation rate of 2.18 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun by fine-tuning the interfacial micro–nano water film. Then, a homemade device with an enhanced condensation function is engineered for outdoor clean water production. Throughout a continuous test for 40 days, this device demonstrates a high water production rate (WPR) of 15.9–19.4 kg kW-1 h-1 m-2. Based on the outdoor outcomes, we further establish a multi-objective model to assess the global WPR. It is predicted that a 1 m2 device can produce at most 7.8 kg of clean water per day, which could meet the daily drinking water needs of 3 people. Finally, this technology could greatly alleviate the current water and energy crisis through further large-scale applications.

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    Zhen Yu, Yuqing Su, Ruonan Gu, Wei Wu, Yangxi Li, Shaoan Cheng. Micro–Nano Water Film Enabled High-Performance Interfacial Solar Evaporation[J]. Nano-Micro Letters, 2023, 15(1): 214

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    Paper Information

    Category: Research Articles

    Received: May. 24, 2023

    Accepted: Aug. 16, 2023

    Published Online: Dec. 15, 2023

    The Author Email: Cheng Shaoan (shaoancheng@zju.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.1007/s40820-023-01191-6

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