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Reconfiguration and self-healing integrated Janus electrospinning nanofiber membranes for durable seawater desalination

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Abstract

Janus electrospinning nanofiber membranes have attracted extensive attention in the fields such as solar-driven interfacial desalination, liquid filtration, and waterproof and breathable fabrics. However, the Janus structures suffer from weak interfacial bonding and vulnerability to damage, making the durability and sustainability are highly sought after in real-word applications. Herein, we fabricate the simply reconfigurable and entirely self-healing Janus evaporator by electrospinning polypropylene glycol based polyurethane (PPG@PU) and polydimethylsiloxane based polyurethane-CNTs (PDMS@PU-CNTs) with different wettability, which are both designed based on dynamic Diels—Alder (DA) bond. The interface of the Janus membrane is stitched by the covalent bonds to directly improve the interface adhesion to 22 N·m−1, constructing an integrated evaporator, and thereby achieving a stable desalination rate of 1.34 kg·m−2·h−1 under one sun. Reversible dissociation of DA networks allows the evaporators for self-healing and reconfiguration abilities, after which the photothermal performance is maintained. This is the first work for the crosslinked self-healing polymer to be directly electrospun, achieving the improved interfacial bond and reconfiguration of entire evaporators, which presented promising new design principles and materials for interfacial solar seawater desalination.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the grants (Nos. 51973027 and 52003044) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2232020A-08), International Cooperation Fund of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 21130750100), and Major Scientific and Technological Innovation Projects of Shandong Province (No. 2021CXGC011004). This work has also been supported by the Chang Jiang Scholars Program and the Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (No. 2019-01-07-00-03-E00023) to Prof. X. H. Q., Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST, State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials (KF2216) and DHU Distinguished Young Professor Program to Prof. L. M. W.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Textile Science & Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Huijie Liu, Jiatai Gu, Ye Liu, Liming Wang & Xiaohong Qin

  2. State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, International Joint Laboratory for Advanced Fiber and Low-dimension Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Lei Yang

  3. Innovation Center for Textile Science and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Jianyong Yu

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  1. Huijie Liu
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  2. Jiatai Gu
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  5. Liming Wang
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  7. Xiaohong Qin
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Correspondence to Liming Wang or Xiaohong Qin.

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Liu, H., Gu, J., Liu, Y. et al. Reconfiguration and self-healing integrated Janus electrospinning nanofiber membranes for durable seawater desalination. Nano Res. 16, 489–495 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4733-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4733-4

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