Inorganic Non-metallic Photothermal Materials And Their Applications In Seawater Purification And Desalination

The shortage of fresh water resources has become a global issue,and solar-driven seawater evaporation is one of the most promising new technologies.By heating,distilling,and purifying seawater to obtain higher-quality domestic water.In this work,for the first time,we use the carrot biochar material dehydrated with anhydrous ethanol as a seawater evaporator.This material is an all-in-one device that integrates light and heat conversion,seawater evaporation,and self-floating thermal material for efficient solar seawater evaporation.As a natural plant,carrots contain a large number of plant cells that can transport water and nutrients.At the same time,its cell wall can protect the cells while maintaining the shape and hardness of the carrot.The water and organic substances inside the carrot are removed by ethanol dehydration treatment,and the original skeletal structure of the cell wall is retained.The seawater is transported to the surface of the carrot through the cell wall pores,where the evaporation occurs.The photothermal seawater evaporator designed by this work has an evaporation rate of 2.04 kg m^-2 h^-1 under the irradiation of a sunlight,and the apparent energy conversion efficiency is 127.8%,which is much higher than the average value of the existing photothermal materials.Finally,it has the characteristics of low cost,convenient production,high durability and environmental protection,and shows great potential in this emerging green technology.Nanomaterials also have extremely broad application prospects in the field of solar seawater purification and desalination.In this work,we also study the application of molybdenum trioxide(Mo O_3-x(0<x<1))with oxygen vacancies in the field of solar-powered seawater desalination and wastewater purification.Due to the precence of oxygen vacancies(OVs),the local surface plasmon resonance(LSPR)phenomenon of the material and its 3D nano flower-like superstructure,the prepared Mo O_3-x has a high solar spectral utilization rate of 97%,a high water evaporation rate of 1.51 kg m^-2 h^-1,and a high light-to-heat energy conversion efficiency of 95%.The excellent properties suggest that Mo O_3-x has great potential in the fields of energy and environment.