High-absorption recyclable photothermal membranes used in a bionic system for high-efficiency solar desalination via enhanced localized heating. Issue 37 (14th September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Zhipeng; Yang, Zhenjie; Huang, Xichong; Xuan, Chaoyan; Xie, Jiahui; Fu, Huide; Wu, Qixing; Zhang, Junmin; Zhou, Xuechang; Liu, Yizhen
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials chemistry. Volume 5:Issue 37(2017)
• Page Start: 20044
• Page End: 20052
• Publication Date: 2017-09-14
• Subjects: Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Analytic -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 543.0284
• DOI: 10.1039/c7ta06384a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-7488

Abstract

Abstract : Imitation of the water circulation mechanism of plants for realizing high-efficiency solar evaporation and desalination. Abstract : Desalination utilizing solar energy is an effective way to mitigate the crisis of water shortage, but its large-scale application in production has been largely limited by the low evaporation efficiency. Here, we report a plate thermal reduction (PTR) method for rapid preparation of plasmonic-active filter paper (PP) as the photothermal material with broadband solar absorption over 92%. By imitating the spontaneous water circulation mechanism of plants, we designed a high-efficiency bionic solar evaporation and desalination system. Air with excellent low thermal conductivity was used as the thermal insulation material. Because of the enhanced localized heating effect, the system features a high solar evaporation efficiency of up to 89% under 10 kW m −2 . Furthermore, under natural sunlight, the bionic system has a drinkable freshwater production rate of 0.97 kg m −2 h −1 under about 0.9 kW m −2 with the highest evaporation efficiency of 79% for one day. With simple material preparation and efficient and stable performance, the bionic system is ideal for large-scale production to tackle energy, water resource and environmental issues.