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Antibacterial evaporator based on reduced graphene oxide/polypyrrole aerogel for solar-driven desalination

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Abstract

Solar-driven water evaporation is a sustainable method to purify seawater. Nevertheless, traditional volumetric water-evaporation systems suffer from the poor sunlight absorption and inefficient light-to-thermal conversion. Also, their anti-bacterial and anti-fouling performances are crucial for the practical application. Herein, we introduce reduced graphene oxide (RGO) with broadband absorbance across the entire solar spectrum, and polypyrrole (PPy), an antibacterial polymer with efficient solar absorption and low thermal conductivity, to develop integrated RGO/PPy aerogel as both the solar absorber and evaporator for highly efficient solar-driven steam generation. As a result, the RGO/PPy aerogel shows strong absorption and good photothermal performance, leading to an evaporation rate of 1.44 kg·m−2·h−1 and high salt rejection (up to 99.99%) for real seawater, with photothermal conversion efficiency > 90% under one sun irradiation. The result is attributed to the localized heat at the air—water interface by the RGO/PPy and its porous nature with functional groups that facilitates the water evaporation. Moreover, the RGO/PPy demonstrates excellent durability and antibacterial efficiency close to 100% for 12 h, crucial characteristics for long-term application. Our well-designed RGO/PPy aerogel with efficient water desalination performance and antibacterial property provides a straightforward approach to improve the solar-driven evaporation performance by multifunctional materials integration, and offers a viable route towards practical seawater desalination.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2018YFA0209500 and 2018YFA0306900) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21872114 and 21627811).

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  1. Mengru Zhang and Fan Xu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (iChEM), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Mengru Zhang, Fan Xu, Wenjie Liu, Yaqi Hou, Xin Zhang, Ruihua Zhang, Lijun Zhou, Xu Hou & Yang Cao

  2. Department of Chemical Biology, MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis & Instrumentation, Key Laboratory for Chemical Biology of Fujian Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Liyun Su & Xiaomei Yan

  3. College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Miao Wang

  4. College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Xu Hou

  5. Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Xu Hou

  6. Pen-Tung Sah Institute of Micro-Nano Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Yang Cao

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  1. Mengru Zhang
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  2. Fan Xu
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  3. Wenjie Liu
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  10. Miao Wang
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  11. Xu Hou
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  12. Yang Cao
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Correspondence to Miao Wang, Xu Hou or Yang Cao.

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Zhang, M., Xu, F., Liu, W. et al. Antibacterial evaporator based on reduced graphene oxide/polypyrrole aerogel for solar-driven desalination. Nano Res. 16, 4219–4224 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-4041-4

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