Issue 48, 2021

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation toward clean water production: burgeoning materials, concepts and technologies

Abstract

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation, as a rising star for eco-friendly and cost-effective freshwater production with a minimized carbon footprint, has been widely studied and implemented in recent years. With the rapid development of this frontier field, many burgeoning materials, new concepts and innovative preparation technologies leading to the next hotspot and front have been developed very recently. It is therefore critical to update the broader scientific community on the important advances in this field. Herein, we focus on the most recently reported progress in new materials, concepts and technologies for solar-driven interfacial evaporation toward clean water production. The emerging materials are categorized into organic small molecules, bio-inspired materials and coordination compounds, which are different from most reported “traditional” materials such as plasmonic particles, semiconductors, carbonaceous materials and polymer materials. The light absorption mechanism and molecular design principle of these emerging materials are discussed in detail. Subsequently, new concepts for significantly boosting the water evaporation rate and thermal efficiency, and new designs for anti-salt-fouling toward high-salinity brine, as well as enhanced condensation, are also highlighted, followed by the introduction of newly developed technologies, such as 3D printing and antifreeze-assisted freezing techniques, for realizing new concepts and designs. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for the future development of solar-driven interfacial evaporation toward clean water production are discussed.

Graphical abstract: Solar-driven interfacial evaporation toward clean water production: burgeoning materials, concepts and technologies

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
15 okt 2021
Accepted
12 noy 2021
First published
03 dek 2021

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021,9, 27121-27139

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation toward clean water production: burgeoning materials, concepts and technologies

F. He, X. Wu, J. Gao and Z. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021, 9, 27121 DOI: 10.1039/D1TA08886F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements