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An ecofriendly and efficient wood-based polyoxovanadate solar evaporation generator

一种环境友好型高效木质钒多酸太阳能蒸发发生器

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Abstract

Currently, freshwater scarcity is a global challenge, and developing low-cost methods for purifying, desalinating, and distilling seawater is crucial. Natural wood, owing to its advantages of high hydrophilicity, low density, microporous channels, and low thermal conductivity, is widely considered a vehicle for solar evaporation. However, the majority of the reported wood-based solar evaporation generators have been economically inefficient, with limited evaporation rates under low-power solar irradiation. Herein, we developed an ecofriendly and efficient wood-based solar evaporation generator comprising a material with excellent photothermal conversion efficiency, polyoxovanadate, loaded on the wood surface with a natural channel structure. The solar evaporation generator exhibited high light absorption capacity (∼98%) in the wide wavelength range of 200–1200 nm, rapid water transport through the wood channels, minimal heat dissipation due to the adiabaticity of the wood, and reduced evaporation enthalpy. Therefore, the overall evaporation efficiency was increased, and a high evaporation rate of 2.23 kg m−2 h−1 and solar-vapor efficiency of 90% under 1 Sun was observed. This environment-friendly, low-cost, and high-efficiency evaporation generator has enormous potential for practical applications in solar desalination and water purification.

摘要

目前, 世界正面临着淡水匮乏的问题, 这是一个全球性的挑战, 而以低成本对海水进行净化、脱盐和蒸馏是解决这一挑战的关键. 由于天然木材具有高亲水性、低密度、微孔通道和低导热性等优点, 被广泛认为是太阳能蒸发的优良载体. 然而, 迄今为止报道的大多数木基太阳能蒸发器在低功率的太阳能照射下, 都呈现出经济效益不高, 蒸发效率有限的不足. 在此, 我们报道了一种生态友好并且高效蒸发的木基太阳能蒸发发生器, 它由优良光热转换性能的钒多酸附着在具有天然通道的木材表面复合而成. 该太阳能蒸发器在200–1200 nm的宽波长范围内均表现出优异的光吸收能力(∼98%), 并且木材的绝热性最大限度地减少了散热. 同时木材天然通道能够提供快速的水传输, 降低了蒸发焓, 从而提高了整体蒸发效率. 在1个太阳光照下, 蒸汽产生速率为2.23 kg m−2 h−1, 太阳能蒸发效率高达90%. 这种环保、低成本、高效率的蒸发发生器在太阳能脱盐和水净化的实际应用中具有巨大潜力.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Hefei Science Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fujian Institute of Innovation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 21571167, 51502282 and 22075266), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WK2060190053 and WK2060190100).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Tian Zhang  (张恬), Wen Yan  (严文), Yan Wang  (王彦), Jie Wang  (王洁), Congyan Liu  (刘聪妍), Fei Ye  (叶飞) & Bo Liu  (刘波)

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  1. Tian Zhang  (张恬)
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  2. Wen Yan  (严文)
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  3. Yan Wang  (王彦)
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  4. Jie Wang  (王洁)
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  5. Congyan Liu  (刘聪妍)
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  6. Fei Ye  (叶飞)
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  7. Bo Liu  (刘波)
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Contributions

Zhang T performed the experiments and wrote the manuscript with support from Liu B; Yan W and Liu C participated in the drawing design. Wang Y and Wang J proofread the manuscript. Ye F was responsible for the ion concentration detection. All authors contributed to the general discussion.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bo Liu  (刘波).

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Supplementary information

Experimental details and supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Tian Zhang is currently a Master’s student at the University of Science and Technology of China. Her research interest focuses on the photothermal conversion mechanism of vanadium polyacids and their solar evaporation application.

Bo Liu is a full professor at the University of Science and Technology of China. He was awarded a PhD degree from Kobe University in 2009. He completed the AvH postdoc research at Ruhr University and Karlsruher Institute of Technologie. In 2012, he moved to the University of Liverpool as a Marie Curie fellow. In 2015, Dr. Liu joined the University of Science and Technology of China. His research interests mainly focus on functional inorganic materials and energy conversion.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Zhang, T., Yan, W., Wang, Y. et al. An ecofriendly and efficient wood-based polyoxovanadate solar evaporation generator. Sci. China Mater. 66, 3292–3299 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-023-2453-x

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