Spatial Confinement Engineered Gel Composite Evaporators for Efficient Solar Steam Generation.

ABSTRACT: Recently, solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) has been developed quickly for low-cost and sustainable seawater desalination, but addressing the conflict between a high evaporation rate and salt rejection during SDIE is still challenging. Here, a spatial confinement strategy is proposed to prepare the gel composite solar evaporator (SCE) by loading one thin hydrogel layer onto the skeleton of a carbon aerogel. The SCE retains the hierarchically porous structure of carbon aerogels with an optimized water supply induced by dual-driven forces (capillary effects and osmotic pressure) and takes advantage of both aerogels and hydrogels, which can gain energy from air and reduce water enthalpy. The SCE has a high evaporation rate (up to 4.23 kg m^-2 h^-1 under one sun)

SUBMITTER: Yan J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11538639 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature