Scalable Fabrication of Conjugated Microporous Polymer Sponges for Efficient Solar Steam Generation

Abstract

Seawater evaporation realized by solar-thermal conversion represents one of the most sustainable and effective strategies to obtain fresh water. Many approaches have been proposed to achieve high efficiencies of solar-thermal conversion, but their practical applications are limited by the low scalability. Herein, novel porphyrin/aniline-based conjugated microporous polymers (PACMPs) are synthesized via a Buchwald–Hartwig coupling reaction, which are then integrated with polyurethane sponges via a simple dip-coating technique. The PACMP-modified sponges (PACSs) retain the high porosity of the sponge substrate and excellent solar-thermal conversion properties of PACMPs. Under standard solar irradiation (1 kW m–2), PACSs achieve a high seawater evaporation rate of 1.31 kg m–2 h–1 with a solar-thermal conversion efficiency of 86.3%. PACSs show no salt accumulation and high performance of desalination and dye decolorization, removing >99.9% salt and >99.2% dye, respectively. The self-floating characteristic, recyclability, and durable solar-thermal evaporation efficiencies enable PACSs to be promising candidate materials for seawater desalination and sewage purification.

Wettability Controlled Surface for Energy Conversion

“…In comparison with the previously reported light-absorbing materials, the photothermal effect of LSHB surface is outstanding in terms of the light absorption, temperature rise, and η value (Table S2, Supporting Information). [3,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71] The photothermal capacity together with its superhydrophobicity endows the surface with light-responsive deicing functionality. Deicing at an environmental temperature of 5 °C was performed under 1 sun (Movie S3, Supporting Information).…”

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation for water treatment: advanced research progress and challenges

“…SDIE has aroused great interest from researchers due to its advantages of green environmental protection, low cost and adjustable scale. [1][2][3] In recent years, increasing types of photothermal materials (PMs) have been designed based on interfacial evaporation, mainly including natural products, 4-10 polymers, [11][12][13][14][15] carbon materials, [16][17][18][19][20][21] and semiconductors. [22][23][24][25][26][27] Besides, the functions of the developed PMs are becoming increasingly comprehensive, mainly covering long-term salt resistance, 6,[28][29][30][31][32] self-cleaning [33][34][35][36][37] and collaborative power generation.…”

Enhancing Built-in Electric Field via Molecular Dipole Control in Conjugated Microporous Polymers for Boosting Charge Separation

“…Solar-to-chemical energy conversion via photoredox catalysis is regarded as a potentially attractive strategy to alleviate energy crisis and environmental issues. Many semiconductor nanoparticulates have been extensively reported to be available for photocatalytic conversion. − Among them, conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) exhibited great potential in photocatalysis because their versatile geometric and electronic structures can be finely tailored and tuned via the rational molecular engineering strategy. − Along this line, considerable advances have been achieved to tailor semiconducting properties of CMPs via the topological design of functional building blocks. − Unfortunately, most photogenerated electron–hole pairs recombine with each other without participating in surface reactions, which is because the weak driving force in CMPs results in a rather low separation and transfer ability of photogenerated carriers. Apart from this, most of the CMP photocatalysts exhibit high exciton binding energies due to their low dielectric constant values, which significantly hinders the dissociation of photogenerated exciton to electron–hole pairs in the photocatalytic process, resulting in a far from satisfactory photocatalytic activity of most of the reported CMPs.…”