Solar‐driven interfacial desalination (SDID), which is based on localized heating and interfacial evaporation, provides an opportunity for developing environmentally friendly and cost‐effective seawater thermal desalination. However, localized heating and rapidly generated interfacial steam may cause salt to accumulate on the evaporator's surface and block the channel of steam evaporation. Salt accumulation inevitably reduces the light absorption and service period of the solar absorber, resulting in a significant decrease in evaporation efficiency over time. Salt accumulation makes it difficult to produce SDID devices with high energy efficiency and long‐term stability for large‐scale use in remote poverty‐stricken areas. Therefore, the exploration of novel and effective strategies for addressing salt accumulation through both material design and structural engineering has attracted more attention in recent years. This review presents an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art advancements in salt‐resistant photothermal evaporation and discusses the critical issues for achieving salt mitigation SDID, focusing on the classification of salt mitigation strategies based on photothermal evaporation configurations, the basic mechanism of salt mitigation, and the architectural design of photothermal materials. Finally, the important challenges and prospects of SDID are discussed to providing a meaningful roadmap to efficient salt mitigation SDID.
Superhydrophilic porous carbon foam was successfully synthesized by facile carbonization of potato, providing a new perspective to design self-desalting monolithic ISSG to satisfy the demand for highly efficient and enduring solar desalination.
High efficiency, long‐term salt rejection, and continuous operation under all‐weather conditions have always been the goals of solar‐driven desalination of high salinity brine. Here, a synergistic strategy of water skin effect and double‐sided evaporation is proposed by an arched evaporator to overcome the above issues. Specifically, a hydrophobic carbon‐fiber cloth (CC) is coated with metal‐organic framework (MOF)‐derived superhydrophilic carbon films, and bent into an arch‐like configuration. Due to unique hydrophobic‐core/hydrophilic‐shell structure, an ultrathin water film (30–150 µm) is confined to the outer layer like skin. Thanks to the water skin effect and coevaporation of outer and inner surfaces, the arched evaporator displays ultrahigh evaporation rate of 3.21 kg m−2 h−1 (3.5 wt% NaCl) and 2.87 kg m−2 h−1 (20 wt% NaCl) under 1 sun illumination. Simultaneously, the free‐flowing water skin with fast convection for salt rejection, ensures stable evaporation performance during the whole day. Additionally, an evaporation rate up to 3.5 kg m−2 h−1 is acquired with only 2.5 V input voltage in a dark environment, attributable to the superior electrothermal effect of CC. The constructed evaporator with all‐in‐one function provides an effective way for commercial, portable photothermal conversion to achieve seawater purification.
Solar steam generation technology is considered to be one of the most promising seawater desalination. To achieve a high and stable water production rate, absorber structure and salt deposition are...
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