Robust, Scalable, and Cost-Effective Surface Carbonized Pulp Foam for Highly Efficient Solar Steam Generation

Cost Effective Photothermal Materials Selection for Direct Solar-Driven Evaporation

The cornerstone of eco-friendly and affordable freshwater generation lies in harnessing solar energy for water evaporation. This process involves extracting vapor from liquid water using solar energy. Numerous innovative, low-cost materials have been proposed for this purpose. These materials aim to enable highly controllable and efficient conversion of solar energy into thermal energy while maintaining high cost-effectiveness. Here, in this review paper, we outline the advancements in solar-driven evaporation technology with a focus on optimizing synthesis methods and materials cost. It prioritizes refining evaporation efficiency and affordability using inventive manufacturing methods. By utilizing innovative reasonably priced materials, this process not only ensures efficient resource utilization but also fosters technological advancements in renewable energy applications. Moreover, the affordability of these materials makes solar-powered water evaporation accessible to a wider range of communities, empowering them to address water scarcity challenges.

Polyhedral Oligomeric Sesquioxane Cross-Linked Chitosan-Based Multi-Effective Aerogel Preparation and Its Water-Driven Recovery Mechanism

The use of environmentally friendly and non-toxic biomass-based interfacial solar water evaporators has been widely reported as a method for water purification in recent years. However, the poor stability of the water transport layer made from biomass materials and its susceptibility to deformation when exposed to harsh environments limit its practical application. To address this issue, water-driven recovery aerogel (PCS) was prepared by cross-linking epoxy-based polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (EP-POSS) epoxy groups with chitosan (CS) amino groups. The results demonstrate that PCS exhibits excellent water-driven recovery performance, regaining its original volume within a very short time (1.9 s) after strong compression (ε > 80%). Moreover, PCS has a water absorption rate of 2.67 mm s-1 and exhibits an excellent water absorption capacity of 22.09 g g-1 even after ten cycles of absorption-removal. Furthermore, a photothermal evaporator (PCH) was prepared by loading the top layer with hydrothermally reacted tannins (HAs) and Zn2+ complexes. The results indicate that PCH achieves an impressive evaporation rate of 1.89 kg m-2 h-1 under one sun illumination. Additionally, due to the antimicrobial properties of Zn2+, PCH shows inhibitory effects against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, thereby extending the application of solar water evaporators to include antimicrobial purification in natural waters.

Reusable Floating Spherical Hydrogel Evaporator for Solar Desalination with Salt Mitigation and Contaminant Elimination

The generation of clean and drinkable fresh water from seawater and contaminated water holds great potential to mitigate water scarcity. Herein, a floating spherical hydrogel evaporator (SHE) is designed to achieve sunlight-driven desalination, self-salt cleaning, and removal of environmental contaminants. The spherical lightweight polystyrene is coated with a porous carbon-embedded sodium alginate/PVA/CMC photothermal hydrogel to generate a spherical hydrogel evaporator (SHE) that floats naturally. The SHE is very sensitive to the weight imbalance (500 mg) and can respond quickly to the accumulation of salt by rotation to the fresh evaporation surface, realizing excellent antisalt fouling performance. Remarkably, with energy localization by porous carbon, the spherical floating evaporator achieved a high evaporation rate of 2.65 kg m-2 h-1 with an evaporation efficiency of 98%. At the same time, SHE is also capable of adsorbing both organic contaminants and heavy metal ions through functional groups of the hydrogel, attaining 99% removal efficiency. Overall, this low-cost spherical floating evaporator may offer solution for eco-friendly and sustainable production of fresh water on a large scale.

Petroleum Coke Embedded in Cigarette Butts: All Waste-Derived Solar Evaporator for Effective Water Evaporation

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation is an eco-friendly solution for tackling the impending water scarcity the world is facing in our century. In this work, a solar-driven interfacial evaporator was prepared from cigarette butts loaded with petroleum coke powder (Filter-PetCoke), a by-product of the oil refinery processes, for the improvement of the absorption of the incident solar light. A comparison between a flat 2D and a 3D evaporator with a surface composed of orderly patterned protrusions of 2.1 cm was carried out to assess the influence of the evaporator configuration on the evaporation performance. The 3D evaporator (3D Filter-PetCoke) achieved by far the best performance (evaporation rate: 1.97 ± 0.08 kg m-2 h-1 and solar conversion efficiency: 93.2 ± 5.4%) among the prepared samples (3D Filter-PetCoke, 3D Filter, 2D Filter-PetCoke, and 2D Filter). In addition, this configuration seems to be adaptable for real and more massive operation because of the geometry of the evaporator. The high efficiency was ascribed to the good heat generation of the petroleum coke and the excellent heat management of the 3D structure of the evaporator. Moreover, this evaporator was resistant to multiple repeated usages without significant efficiency loss and capable of producing drinking water from seawater and Escherichia coli (E. coli)-contaminated water. The findings in this work indicate that this evaporator is pertinent to real situations to supply safe freshwater very efficiently from chemically/biologically contaminated water.

Tailoring Functionality of Nanocellulose: Current Status and Critical Challenges

Nanocellulose (NC) isolated from natural cellulose resources, which mainly includes cellulose nanofibril (CNF) and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), has garnered increased attention in recent decades due to its outstanding physical and chemical properties. Various chemical modifications have been developed with the aim of surface-modifying NC for highly sophisticated applications. This review comprehensively summarizes the chemical modifications applied to NC so far in order to introduce new functionalities to the material, such as silanization, esterification, oxidation, etherification, grafting, coating, and others. The new functionalities obtained through such surface-modification methods include hydrophobicity, conductivity, antibacterial properties, and absorbability. In addition, the incorporation of NC in some functional materials, such as films, wearable sensors, cellulose nanospheres, aerogel, hydrogels, and nanocomposites, is discussed in relation to the tailoring of the functionality of NC. It should be pointed out that some issues need to be addressed during the preparation of NC and NC-based materials, such as the low reactivity of these raw materials, the difficulties involved in their scale-up, and their high energy and water consumption. Over the past decades, some methods have been developed, such as the use of pretreatment methods, the adaptation of low-cost starting raw materials, and the use of environmentally friendly chemicals, which support the practical application of NC and NC-based materials. Overall, it is believed that as a green, sustainable, and renewable nanomaterial, NC is will be suitable for large-scale applications in the future.