Abstract
Solar steam generation (SSG) system greatly improves the efficiency of water evaporation through heat localization, which has broad application prospects at seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. In this paper, polyamide 6-graphene oxide (PA6-GO) membrane was fabricated by nonsolvent-induced phase separation of a solution with GO-modified PA6 in formic acid. Furthermore, the PA6-GO membrane was modified by vacuum filtration of self-assembly gold nanoparticles on its surface for solar stem generation. The composite membrane obtained a light absorption rate of nearly 99.8%. Under the irradiation of 1 kW m−2, the evaporation rate of 1.1 kg m−2 h−1 was obtained and the evaporation efficiency also reached to 75.6%. The evaporation system has the characteristics of low cost, high stability, strong acid, and alkali corrosion resistance, suggesting great potentials in seawater desalination and sewage treatment.
Graphical abstract
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
References
L. Zhao, Q. Yang, W. Guo, H. Liu, T. Ma, F. Qu, Co2.67S4-based photothermal membrane with high mechanical properties for efficient solar water evaporation and photothermal antibacterial applications. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11, 20820–20827 (2019)
C. Chen, Y. Li, J. Song, Z. Yang, Y. Kuang, E. Hitz, C. Jia, A. Gong, F. Jiang, J.Y. Zhu, B. Yang, J. Xie, L. Hu, Highly flexible and efficient solar steam generation device. Adv. Mater. 29, 1701756 (2017)
Y. Liu, Y. Zhang, G. Jia, Photothermal conversion of Bi2Se3 nanosheets and efficient steam generation by capillary siphoning. Energy Rep. 6, 1304–1311 (2020)
X. Han, W. Wang, K. Zuo, L. Chen, L. Yuan, J. Liang, Q. Li, P.M. Ajayan, Y. Zhao, J. Lou, Bio-derived ultrathin membrane for solar driven water purification. Nano Energy 60, 567–575 (2019)
M.A. Shannon, P.W. Bohn, M. Elimelech, J.G. Georgiadis, B.J. Marinas, A.M. Mayes, Science and technology for water purification in the coming decades, in Nanoscience and Technology, (2009) pp. 337–346.
G. Wang, Y. Fu, X. Ma, W. Pi, D. Liu, X. Wang, Reusable reduced graphene oxide based double-layer system modified by polyethylenimine for solar steam generation. Carbon 114, 117–124 (2017)
G. Baffou, R. Quidant, F.J.G. de Abajo, Nanoscale control of optical heating in complex plasmonic systems. ACS Nano 4, 709–716 (2010)
Z.Y. Fang, Y.R. Zhen, O. Neumann, A. Polman, F.J.G. de Abajo, P. Nordlander, N.J. Halas, Evolution of light-induced vapor generation at a liquid-immersed metallic nanoparticle. Nano Lett. 13, 1736–1742 (2013)
N.J. Halas, O. Neumann, A. Urban, N. Hogan, Z.Y. Fang, A. Pimpinelli, S. Lal, P. Nordlander, Solar vapor generation enabled by nanoparticles. Abstr. Pap. Am. Chem. Soc 246, 42–49 (2013)
J.L. Li, D. Day, M. Gu, Ultra-low energy threshold for cancer photothermal therapy using transferrin-conjugated gold nanorods. Adv. Mater. 20, 3866–3871 (2008)
H.Y. Liu, D. Chen, L.L. Li, T.L. Liu, L.F. Tan, X.L. Wu, F.Q. Tang, Multifunctional gold nanoshells on silica nanorattles: a platform for the combination of photothermal therapy and chemotherapy with low systemic toxicity. Angew. Chem.-Int. Ed. 50, 891–895 (2011)
M. Reismann, J.C. Bretschneider, G. von Plessen, U. Simon, Reversible photothermal melting of DNA in DNA-gold-nanoparticle networks. Small 4, 607–610 (2008)
K. Manthiram, A.P. Alivisatos, Tunable localized surface plasmon resonances in tungsten oxide nanocrystals. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 3995–3998 (2012)
J.C. Liu, O. Margeat, W. Dachraoui, X.J. Liu, M. Fahlman, J. Ackermann, Gram-scale synthesis of ultrathin tungsten oxide nanowires and their aspect ratio-dependent photocatalytic activity. Adv. Funct. Mater. 24, 6029–6037 (2014)
M.K. Gupta, S.C. Kaushik, Exergy analysis and investigation for various feed water heaters of direct steam generation solar-thermal power plant. Renew. Energy 35, 1228–1235 (2010)
W. Fang, L. Zhao, H. Chen, X. He, W. Li, X. Du, Z. Sun, T. Zhang, Y. Shen, Graphene oxide foam fabricated with surfactant foaming method for efficient solar vapor generation. J. Mater. Sci. 54, 12782–12793 (2019)
X. Zhao, X.-J. Zha, J.-H. Pu, L. Bai, R.-Y. Bao, Z.-Y. Liu, M.-B. Yang, W. Yang, Macroporous three-dimensional MXene architectures for highly efficient solar steam generation. J. Mater. Chem. A 7, 10446–10455 (2019)
F. Zhao, Y.H. Guo, X.Y. Zhou, W. Shi, G.H. Yu, Materials for solar-powered water evaporation. Nat. Rev. Mater. 5, 388–401 (2020)
M. Zhu, A. Xia, Q. Feng, X. Wu, C. Zhang, D. Wu, H. Zhu, Biomass carbon materials for efficient solar steam generation prepared from carbonized enteromorpha prolifera. Energy Technol. 8, 1901215 (2019)
F. Jiang, T. Li, Y. Li, Y. Zhang, A. Gong, J. Dai, E. Hitz, W. Luo, L. Hu, Wood-based nanotechnologies toward sustainability. Adv. Mater. 30, 1703453 (2018)
G. Li, F. Li, J. Liu, C.J.J.S.S.C. Fan, Fe-based MOFs for photocatalytic N 2 reduction: key role of transition metal iron in nitrogen activation. J. Solid State Chem. 285, 121245 (2020)
Y. Chen, C. Sha, W. Wang, F. Yang, Solar-driven steam generation on nitrogen-doped graphene in a 2D water path isolation system. Mater. Res. Express 7, 015507 (2020)
S.H. Hong, Y. Shi, R.Y. Li, C.L. Zhang, Y. Jin, P. Wang, Nature-inspired, 3D origami solar steam generator toward near full utilization of solar energy. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 10, 28517–28524 (2018)
X. Wang, Y. He, X. Liu, G. Cheng, J. Zhu, Solar steam generation through bio-inspired interface heating of broadband-absorbing plasmonic membranes. Appl. Energy 195, 414–425 (2017)
Y. Li, T. Gao, Z. Yang, C. Chen, W. Luo, J. Song, E. Hitz, C. Jia, Y. Zhou, B. Liu, B. Yang, L. Hu, 3D-printed, all-in-one evaporator for high-efficiency solar steam generation under 1 sun illumination. Adv. Mater. 29, 1700981 (2017)
K.K. Liu, Q. Jiang, S. Tadepalli, R. Raliya, P. Biswas, R.R. Naik, S. Singamaneni, Wood-graphene oxide composite for highly efficient solar steam generation and desalination. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9, 7675–7681 (2017)
Q.S. Jiang, L.M. Tian, K.K. Liu, S. Tadepalli, R. Raliya, P. Biswas, R.R. Naik, S. Singamaneni, Bilayered biofoam for highly efficient solar steam generation. Adv. Mater. 28, 9400–9407 (2016)
Y. Ito, Y. Tanabe, J. Han, T. Fujita, K. Tanigaki, M. Chen, Multifunctional porous graphene for high-efficiency steam generation by heat localization. Adv. Mater. 27, 4302–4307 (2015)
H.T. Kieu, K. Zhou, A.W.K. Law, Surface morphology effect on the evaporation of water on graphene oxide: a molecular dynamics study. Appl. Surf. Sci. 488, 335–342 (2019)
Y. Chang, Z. Wang, Y.-E. Shi, X. Ma, L. Ma, Y. Zhang, J. Zhan, Hydrophobic W18O49 mesocrystal on hydrophilic PTFE membrane as an efficient solar steam generation device under one sun. J. Mater. Chem. A 6, 10939–10946 (2018)
G. Ni, G. Li, S.V. Boriskina, H.X. Li, W.L. Yang, T.J. Zhang, G. Chen, Steam generation under one sun enabled by a floating structure with thermal concentration. Nat. Energy 1, 16126 (2016)
A. Politano, P. Argurio, G. Di Profio, V. Sanna, A. Cupolillo, S. Chakraborty, H.A. Arafat, E. Curcio, Photothermal membrane distillation for seawater desalination. Adv. Mater. 29, 1603504 (2017)
Y. Xu, D. Liu, H. Xiang, S. Ren, Z. Zhu, D. Liu, H. Xu, F. Cui, W. Wang, Easily scaled-up photo-thermal membrane with structure-dependent auto-cleaning feature for high-efficient solar desalination. J. Membr. Sci. 586, 222–230 (2019)
J. Hou, C. Bao, S. Qu, X. Hu, S. Nair, Y. Chen, Graphene oxide membranes for ion separation: detailed studies on the effects of fabricating conditions. Appl. Surf. Sci. 459, 185–193 (2018)
Z. Yin, Y. Wang, C. Song, L. Zheng, N. Ma, X. Liu, S. Li, L. Lin, M. Li, Y. Xu, W. Li, G. Hu, Z. Fang, D. Ma, Hybrid Au-Ag nanostructures for enhanced plasmon-driven catalytic selective hydrogenation through visible light irradiation and surface-enhanced Raman scattering. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140, 864–867 (2018)
X. Han, J. Goebl, Z. Lu, Y. Yin, Role of salt in the spontaneous assembly of charged gold nanoparticles in ethanol. Langmuir 27, 5282–5289 (2011)
Z. Xu, C. Gao, In situ polymerization approach to graphene-reinforced nylon-6 composites. Macromolecules 43, 6716–6723 (2010)
Z. Yin, W. Zhang, Q. Fu, H. Yue, W. Wei, P. Tang, W. Li, W. Li, L. Lin, G. Ma, D. Ma, Construction of stable chainlike Au nanostructures via silica coating and exploration for potential photothermal therapy. Small 10, 3619–3624 (2014)
Z. Li, W. Cai, X. Wang, Y. Hu, Z. Gui, Self-floating black phosphorous nanosheets as a carry-on solar vapor generator. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 582, 496–505 (2020)
Y. Li, T. Gao, Z. Yang, C. Chen, Y. Kuang, J. Song, C. Jia, E.M. Hitz, B. Yang, L. Hu, Graphene oxide-based evaporator with one-dimensional water transport enabling high-efficiency solar desalination. Nano Energy 41, 201–209 (2017)
G. Xue, K. Liu, Q. Chen, P. Yang, J. Li, T. Ding, J. Duan, B. Qi, J. Zhou, Robust and low-cost flame-treated wood for high-performance solar steam generation. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9, 15052–15057 (2017)
W. Fang, L. Zhao, X. He, H. Chen, W. Li, X. Zeng, X. Chen, Y. Shen, W. Zhang, Carbonized rice husk foam constructed by surfactant foaming method for solar steam generation. Renew. Energy 151, 1067–1075 (2020)
C. Boo, Y. Wang, I. Zucker, Y. Choo, C.O. Osuji, M. Elimelech, High performance nanofiltration membrane for effective removal of perfluoroalkyl substances at high water recovery. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52, 7279–7288 (2018)
Q. Wang, Y. Qin, F. Jia, Y. Li, S. Song, Magnetic MoS2 nanosheets as recyclable solar-absorbers for high-performance solar steam generation. Renew. Energy 163, 146–153 (2021)
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by Key R&D program of Tianjin municipal science and technology commission (20YFZCSN00930).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xu, J., Chen, Y., Cao, M. et al. Highly efficient solar steam generation of polyamide 6 membrane modified with graphene oxide and Au nanoparticles. Journal of Materials Research 37, 1475–1485 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-022-00552-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-022-00552-y