Issue 1, 2021

Solar-driven evaporators for water treatment: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Solar-driven evaporation is an emerging process to acquire freshwater from saline water or wastewater, in which photothermal materials play a crucial role. Significant effort has been devoted to promoting energy conversion efficiency by material and device design. In the current review, we discuss the major factors affecting evaporator efficiency and long-term performance, including selection of photothermal materials, promotion of evaporation efficiency, and solutions to the problem of scaling. Both the material components and structure will affect the absorption and reflection of the incident light, and the evaporation efficiency can be enhanced by reducing heat loss, enlarging surface area, and recycling latent heat. Scaling can be addressed by tailoring surface properties and structure.

Graphical abstract: Solar-driven evaporators for water treatment: challenges and opportunities

Article information

Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
05 aug 2020
Accepted
06 sep 2020
First published
07 sep 2020

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2021,7, 24-39

Author version available

Solar-driven evaporators for water treatment: challenges and opportunities

S. Wu, H. Chen, H. Wang, X. Chen, H. Yang and S. B. Darling, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2021, 7, 24 DOI: 10.1039/D0EW00725K

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