A research team led by Professor Chengbin Wang from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Shaanxi University of Science and Technology has devised a novel "water diode" photothermal evaporator that exhibits a significantly enhanced water supply rate with increasing light intensity. Their findings were published in the journal Advanced Materials.
In recent years, interfacial solar-driven evaporation (ISDE) techniques have attracted considerable attention as a promising approach to alleviating global water scarcity. In ISDE systems, water supply management plays a critical role in achieving effective energy matching. Mismatches between the supplied energy and the required energy in conventional systems severely limit their conversion efficiency. To address this issue, Professor Wang's team has designed a "water diode" photothermal evaporator that utilizes an asymmetric surface wettability gradient and unidirectional water transport, enabling a significantly faster water supply rate under increasing light intensity, demonstrating adaptive behavior to light intensity.
The evaporator's water feeding rate can be greatly boosted with the increasing light intensity, showcasing its adaptive capability to light illumination. (Image by the research group)
Under 1 kW m−2 solar irradiation, the "water diode" photothermal evaporator achieved an evaporation rate of 2.14 kg m−2 h−1 and an energy conversion efficiency of 93.7%. The evaporator's dynamic water-feeding management can cope with various illumination conditions in practical environments, thus enabling an energy conversion efficiency above 90% under fluctuating light intensities, establishing an efficient dynamic water-energy balance. This work provides a novel and efficient solar desalination strategy for ISDE.
Relevant paper information: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202309507
