Enhanced Contactless Salt-Collecting Solar Desalination

作者：Yue Bian, Zhihao Ye, Gengyou Zhao, Kun Tang, Yan Teng, Si Chen, Lijuan Zhao, Yuan Xiu, Shunming Zhu, Jiandong Ye, Haiming Lu, Yi Yang, Lan Fu, Shulin Gu · 发表于：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1021/acsami.2c09063 · 被引用次数：48 · 研究领域：Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods、Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Systems、Membrane Separation Technologies

Solar desalination is expected to solve the problem of global water shortage. Yet its stability is plagued by salt accumulation. Here, a paper-based thermal radiation-enabled evaporation system (TREES) is demonstrated to achieve sustainable and highly efficient salt-collecting desalination, featuring a dynamic evaporation front based on the accumulated salt layer where water serves as its own absorber via energy down-conversion. When processing 7 wt % brine, it continuously evaporates water at a high rate─2.25 L m –2 h –1 under 1 sun illumination─which is well beyond the input solar energy limit for over 366 h. It is revealed that such enhanced evaporation arises from the unique vertical evaporation wall of the paper-TREES, which captures the thermal energy from the heated bottom efficiently and gains extra energy from the warmer environment. These findings provide novel insights into the design of next-generation salt-harvesting solar evaporators and take a step further to advance their applications in green desalination.