Interfacial Heating-based Solar Steam Sterilization

Steam sterilization has been widely used as one of the most reliable sterilization methods for public health.However,traditional steam sterilization mainly relies on electricity,a constrained resource for many developing countries and areas.The lack of available and affordable sterilization techniques in these areas has been exposing human beings to high risk of various epidemic diseases,and calls for the development of off-grid sterilization solutions.In this work,we for the first time revealed the kinetical advantage of interfacial solar steam generations,and demonstrated that interfacial solar steam generations can enable fast responsive(as short as 8.4 min for a full sterilization cycle)and energy efficient(100 J mL-1 for steam reaching 121℃)sterilization,superior to these of the conventional sterilization techniques.The key solar absorber is made of low cost and widely available biochar.A proof-of-concept sterilization system with a 10.5 L solar autoclave was built with very low cost of whole-life cycle and operated with minimum carbon footprint.Effective sterilization(～99.999999%inactivation of pathogen),exceeding the requirements of Food and Drug Administration was demonstrated,making the sterilization strategy a promising and complementary personalized sterilization solution particularly beneficial for off-grid areas.