A Single Component, Single Layer Flexile Foam Evaporator with the Higher Efficiency for Water Generation

Ruoxin Li; Mingrui Wu; Haijun Ma; Yongqi Zhu; Hongyi Zhang; Qiaomei Chen; Chuhong Zhang; Yen Wei

doi:10.1002/adma.202402016

A Single Component, Single Layer Flexile Foam Evaporator with the Higher Efficiency for Water Generation

Adv Mater. 2024 May 10:e2402016. doi: 10.1002/adma.202402016. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ruoxin Li^{1

2

3}, Mingrui Wu⁴, Haijun Ma⁵, Yongqi Zhu⁶, Hongyi Zhang⁶, Qiaomei Chen⁷, Chuhong Zhang³, Yen Wei^{4

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ MOE Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China.
⁴ MOE Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
⁵ Key Lab of Ministry of Education for Protection and Utilization of Special Biological Resources in Western China, School of Life Sciences, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, 750021, China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
⁷ Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China.
⁸ School of Materials Science and Engineering, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, 750021, China.
⁹ Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanotechnology, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung Li District, Taiwan, Taoyuan, 32023, China.

PMID: 38733109
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202402016

Abstract

One of the greenest and promising ways to solve the problem of freshwater crisis is surface solar steam generation from seawater. A great number of photothermal materials with multi-component and multi-layered delicate yet complex structures often suffer from either low evaporation rate or high energy loss. Here, this work presents a single component foam evaporator with steam generation rate of up to 4.32 kg m^-2 h^-1 under 1 sun irradiation. The evaporator is constructed from an aniline oligomer as a single light-absorbing component, covalent linked with polyethylene glycol to form a monolithic polymer foam. Floating on the seawater, the foam has absorbance of 99.5% over the entire solar spectral range and low thermal conductivity (0.0077 W K^-1m^-1) that effectively retains heat in the material and at the interface. After 3 months of continuous outdoor natural sunlight irradiation, the evaporator maintains a stable and durable evaporation rate. Moreover, the materials have good mechanical properties (7.48 MPa young's modulus and 57.38% elongation at break) and excellent chemical resistance in 10 common organic solvents and aqueous solutions of pH = 1 to 14. This study provides a new system and strategy for desalination, steam power generation, treatment of polluted water and sewage, etc.

Keywords: desalination; oligoanilines; photothermal materials; surface water evaporation.

Abstract

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