Solar-driven
interfacial evaporation is a sustainable and efficient
way of producing clean water using solar energy. Currently, most studies
on solar-driven interfacial evaporation are based on small-sized evaporators,
and it is still a challenge to develop an efficient, simple, and general
method for producing evaporators continuously and at a large scale.
Herein, we develop a spray-based method for producing graphene oxide
(GO)/carbon nanotube (CNT)-based membrane evaporators at various scales.
This method enables production of membrane evaporators from a lab
scale to an industrial scale. Great efforts have been made to optimize
the preparation and properties of the membrane evaporators. A GO-CNT/paper
membrane evaporator prepared under optimized conditions exhibits a
high evaporation rate of 2.1 kg m–2 h–1 with a corresponding efficiency of 90.1% under one sun irradiation.
The evaporator also has high properties of water desalination, purification,
and disinfection. Natural lake water evaporation tests show a high
water evaporation capacity of ∼8.2 kg m–2 on a sunny day, and the salinity in the obtained water (Na+ ions, 1.2 mg L–1) is below the WHO standards for
drinkable water. Overall, an efficient, simple, and scalable method
for producing high-performance membrane evaporators has been demonstrated.