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Volume 12
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10.3390/nano12193296
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Article

Nanocomposite-Enhanced Efficient Evaporation System for Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination—An Optimized Design for Clean Water Production

by
Zhou Wei
1,†,
Muhammad Sultan Irshad
1,†,
Naila Arshad
1,
Laila Noureen
2,
Iftikhar Ahmed
3,
Naveed Mushtaq
1,
Muhammad Sohail Asghar
1,
Qaisar Hayat
4,
Uzma Ghazanfar
5,
Muhammad Idrees
6,
Naeem Shahzad
7 and
Yuzheng Lu
8,*
1
Hubei Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials Co-Constructed by the Province and Ministry, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for the Green Preparation and Application of Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
2
School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
3
ERC Research Centre, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, Islamabad 54000, Pakistan
4
College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
5
Department of Physics, University of Wah, Wah Cantonment 47040, Pakistan
6
Department of Physics, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad 54000, Pakistan
7
CE Wing, MCE, National University of Sciences and Technology Risalpur Campus, Risalpur 24090, Pakistan
8
School of Electronic Engineering, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing 211171, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Nanomaterials 2022, 12(19), 3296; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12193296
Submission received: 9 August 2022 / Revised: 18 September 2022 / Accepted: 20 September 2022 / Published: 22 September 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanostructured Materials for Energy Applications)
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Abstract

Solar-driven evaporation is a promising technology for desalinating seawater and wastewater without mechanical or electrical energy. The approaches to obtaining fresh water with higher evaporation efficiency are essential to address the water-scarcity issue in remote sensing areas. Herein, we report a highly efficient solar evaporator derived from the nanocomposite of anatase TiO2/activated carbon (TiO2/AC), which was coated on washable cotton fabric using the dip-dry technique for solar water evaporation. The ultra-black fabric offers enhanced solar absorption (93.03%), hydrophilic water transport, and an efficient evaporation rate of 1.65 kg/m2h under 1 kW m−2 or one sun solar intensity. More importantly, the sideways water channels and centralized thermal insulation of the designed TiO2/AC solar evaporator accumulated photothermal heat at the liquid and air interface along with an enhanced surface temperature of 40.98 °C under one sun. The fabricated solar evaporator desalinated seawater (3.5 wt%) without affecting the evaporation rates, and the collected condensed water met the standard of drinking water set by the World Health Organization (WHO). This approach eventually enabled the engineering design groups to develop the technology pathways as well as optimum conditions for low-cost, scalable, efficient, and sustainable solar-driven steam generators to cope with global water scarcity.
Keywords: solar energy; water evaporation; anatase TiO2; AC; photothermal conversion; water scarcity solar energy; water evaporation; anatase TiO2; AC; photothermal conversion; water scarcity

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Wei, Z.; Irshad, M.S.; Arshad, N.; Noureen, L.; Ahmed, I.; Mushtaq, N.; Asghar, M.S.; Hayat, Q.; Ghazanfar, U.; Idrees, M.; et al. Nanocomposite-Enhanced Efficient Evaporation System for Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination—An Optimized Design for Clean Water Production. Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 3296. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12193296

AMA Style

Wei Z, Irshad MS, Arshad N, Noureen L, Ahmed I, Mushtaq N, Asghar MS, Hayat Q, Ghazanfar U, Idrees M, et al. Nanocomposite-Enhanced Efficient Evaporation System for Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination—An Optimized Design for Clean Water Production. Nanomaterials. 2022; 12(19):3296. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12193296

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wei, Zhou, Muhammad Sultan Irshad, Naila Arshad, Laila Noureen, Iftikhar Ahmed, Naveed Mushtaq, Muhammad Sohail Asghar, Qaisar Hayat, Uzma Ghazanfar, Muhammad Idrees, and et al. 2022. "Nanocomposite-Enhanced Efficient Evaporation System for Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination—An Optimized Design for Clean Water Production" Nanomaterials 12, no. 19: 3296. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12193296

APA Style

Wei, Z., Irshad, M. S., Arshad, N., Noureen, L., Ahmed, I., Mushtaq, N., Asghar, M. S., Hayat, Q., Ghazanfar, U., Idrees, M., Shahzad, N., & Lu, Y. (2022). Nanocomposite-Enhanced Efficient Evaporation System for Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination—An Optimized Design for Clean Water Production. Nanomaterials, 12(19), 3296. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12193296

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