An ‘antifouling’ porous loofah sponge with internal microchannels as solar absorbers and water pumpers for thermal desalination

Abstract

We found that a type of fruiting body, the loofah, can enable efficient solar-driven steam generation based on the integrated bilayers and microchannels. Under illumination of one Sun, the steam generation rate and efficiency achieved 1.42 kg m−2 h−1 and 89.9%, respectively.

Nature Inspired MXene-Decorated 3D Honeycomb-Fabric Architectures Toward Efficient Water Desalination and Salt Harvesting

“…Several researchers have sought to synthesize three-dimensional (3D) macrostructures [21], such as origami 3D tessellation, conical shape, lotus flowers, origami rose, and cylindrical cup-shaped structures, to enable incident light to undergo multiple reflections and minimize energy loss, thereby contributing to the light absorption and evaporation efficiency of the evaporators [20,[22][23][24][25]. (3) In the case of water transport channels, 3D vessels with random and interconnected porous structures, such as aerogels with vertically aligned vessels and inherent porous networks, wood with interconnected micro/nanochannels, and loofah fibers with hierarchical macropores and microchannels, have been adopted to achieve water transport via capillary effects [26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. However, water in the transfer channels could increase thermal conductivity and heat loss.…”

Side Area‐Assisted 3D Evaporator with Antibiofouling Function for Ultra‐Efficient Solar Steam Generation

“…[ 16–21 ] Among them, plasmonic and carbon‐based absorbers have their inherent weaknesses, such as, low chemical stability and high cost for plasmonic absorbers, and low stability against water and bacteria for carbon absorbers. [ 22–24 ] Besides, those developed systems generally feature a single function with transferring solar energy into heat, and multifunctional evaporator remain unexploited broadly but supremely desirable. [ 13,25 ] Furthermore, during evaporation, the formed warm environment around the evaporator is capable of promoting the growth of microorganisms which seriously affects working life of the evaporator, especially for wastewater treatment.…”

Recent Progress on the Solar‐Driven Interfacial Evaporation Based on Natural Products and Synthetic Polymers

“…Zeng and coworkers [ 94 ] reported a cheap SSGD from carrots (ethanol‐treated carrot biochar); its inherent structure of carrots and high adsorption of the sun make the evaporation rate of this SSGD reach 2.04 kg m −2 h −1 and the apparent energy conversion efficiency reach 127.8%. In addition, this SSGD is very convenient for recycling in practical application because of its excellent durability and environmental stability.…”