Highly Efficient, Antibacterial, and Salt-Resistant Strategy Based on Carbon Black/Chitosan-Decorated Phase-Change Microcapsules for Solar-Powered Seawater Desalination

作者：Si Chen, Zhiheng Zheng, Huan Liu, Xiaodong Wang · 发表于：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1021/acsami.2c21298 · 被引用次数：130 · 研究领域：Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods、Membrane Separation Technologies、Phase Change Materials Research

Solar-powered interfacial evaporation has been recognized to be a promising and sustainable technology for seawater desalination, in view of the challenge of freshwater scarcity and fossil energy storage. Nevertheless, current cutting-edge interfacial evaporation systems mostly ignore the issues of intermittent solar irradiation and bacterial contamination. We have hereby developed a novel type of an interfacial evaporator equipped with carbon black (CB)/chitosan (CS)-decorated phase-change microcapsules as a multifunctional photothermal material for solar-powered seawater desalination, based on a highly efficient, antibacterial, and salt-resistant multipurpose strategy. In the developed microcapsules, an n -docosane phase-change material (PCM) core was engulfed in a TiO 2 shell, followed by surface decorating a CB/CS nanocomposite layer. A high thermal energy-storage capacity of more than 140 J g –1 was achieved, thanks to tight sealing of n -docosane as a PCM core in the perfect core–shell structured microcapsules. Moreover, a rational combination of CS and CB nanoparticles not only contributes an extremely high solar absorption efficiency of 95.04% and good wettability to the as-synthesized microcapsules, but also imparts outstanding antibacterial and salt-resistant abilities to them. These innovative designs enable the developed evaporator to gain a high evaporation rate of 2.58 kg m –2 h –1, along with an evaporation efficiency higher than 90% for consecutive and stable ...