Abdelsalam Mohamed A, Sajjad Muhammad, Raza Aikifa, AlMarzooqi Faisal, Zhang TieJun
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Nat Commun. 2024 Jan 29;15(1):874. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45108-2.
The urgency of addressing water scarcity and exponential population rise has necessitated the use of sustainable desalination for clean water production, while conventional thermal desalination processes consume fossil fuel with brine rejection. As a promising solution to sustainable solar thermal distillation, we report a scalable mangrove-mimicked device for direct solar vapor generation and passive salt collection without brine discharge. Capillarity-driven salty water supply and continuous vapor generation are ensured by anti-corrosion porous wicking stem and multi-layer leaves, which are made of low-cost superhydrophilic nanostructured titanium meshes. Precipitated salt at the leaf edge forms porous patch during daytime evaporation and get peeled by gravity during night when saline water rewets the leaves, and these salt patches can enhance vaporization by 1.6 times as indicated by our findings. The proposed solar vapor generator achieves a stable photothermal efficiency around 94% under one sun when treating synthetic seawater with a salinity of 3.5 wt.%. Under outdoor conditions, it can produce 2.2 L m of freshwater per day from real seawater, which is sufficient for individual drinking needs. This kind of biomimetic solar distillation devices have demonstrated great capability in clean water production and passive salt collection to tackle global water and environmental challenges.
应对水资源短缺和人口指数增长的紧迫性使得采用可持续的海水淡化技术来生产清洁水成为必要，而传统的热法海水淡化工艺在排盐的同时会消耗化石燃料。作为可持续太阳能热蒸馏的一种有前景的解决方案，我们报道了一种可扩展的仿红树林装置，用于直接太阳能蒸汽产生和被动盐分收集，且无盐水排放。由低成本超亲水纳米结构钛网制成的抗腐蚀多孔芯吸茎和多层叶片确保了毛细作用驱动的咸水供应和持续蒸汽产生。叶边缘沉淀的盐在白天蒸发时形成多孔斑块，并在夜间盐水重新润湿叶片时因重力作用而脱落，我们的研究结果表明，这些盐斑可使蒸发增强1.6倍。在用盐度为3.5 wt.%的合成海水处理时，所提出的太阳能蒸汽发生器在一个太阳辐射强度下实现了约94%的稳定光热效率。在室外条件下，它每天可从实际海水中生产2.2 L m的淡水，足以满足个人饮用需求。这种仿生太阳能蒸馏装置在清洁水生产和被动盐分收集方面展现出了应对全球水和环境挑战的强大能力。
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