Thermal insulation design for efficient and scalable solar water interfacial evaporation and purification

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2020.05.075

Abstract

Abstract:

In recent years, solar desalination and water evaporation/purification with various artificial architectures have drawn significant attention. Herein, we introduce a rational design structure for efficient solar water evaporation and purification, focusing on the balance between water transportation and thermal insulation. Natural wood after a simple flame treatment on the surface was utilized as the solar absorber, with a high solar absorbance (~90 %), good hydrophilicity, and excellent heat localization abilities. Besides, a thermal insulator (polystyrene foam) was used to further reduce the thermal loss, and the optimized ratio between the water path and thermal insulator was obtained. A set of floating foam-flamed-wood (F-F-wood) devices were fabricated with a high evaporation rate of 3.92 kg m^-2 h^-1, exhibiting photothermal purification abilities from seawater and wastewater containing organic dyes and heavy metals. This study sheds light on the rational design of scalable and low-cost devices for solar water evaporation and purification.

Key words: Biomaterials, Thermal insulation, Solar water evaporation, Purification

Jiahui Chen, Dainan Zhang, Song He, Gengpei Xia, Xiaoyi Wang, Quanjun Xiang, Tianlong Wen, Zhiyong Zhong, Yulong Liao. Thermal insulation design for efficient and scalable solar water interfacial evaporation and purification[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2021, 66: 157-162.

Figures/Tables 5

Fig. 1. Schematics of conventional solar water evaporation with direct water contact (a), new-designed solar water evaporation devices with suppressed heat loss (b).

Fig. 2. Characterizations of wood and F-wood. (a) molecular structures of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin (the three main components of wood, n is the degree of polymerization), (b) and (c) top view SEM images of wood, (d) cross-sectional view SEM images of wood, (e) absorption spectra of wood (red line) and F-wood (black line).

Fig. 3. Evaporation performance of different samples: (a) fabricated new-designed devices: (left) wood as water path, (middle) polystyrene foam filled inside the wood as thermal insulator, and (right) flame-treated surface as heat absorber. (b) temperature distribution of the beaker (with different samples) under the solar light irradiation as a function of time, (c) temperature variations of water with different samples over time, (d) mass change of water and (e) water evaporation rate with different samples over time.

Fig. 4. Performances of F-F-wood based devices with different ratio between wood and polystyrene foam: (a) simulation diagram, (b) surface temperature variations, and (c) mass change of water, with different samples (S1, S2, S3, S4); (d) surface temperature variations of sample S2 and bottom water under the solar light irradiation as a function of time (The inset shows infrared photos of the beaker after 300 s, 40 min illumination. Black dashed lines are the contour of beaker and the white lines are the position of free-floating sample).

Fig. 5. Water treatment performances of F-F-wood device (S2). (a) purification of organic dye and heavy metal ions, (b) organic dye and heavy metal ions rejection performance, (c) schematic illustration of water purification under natural one-sun illumination and actual photos of all-in-one solar distillation setup for freshwater evaporation and collection during a daytime, (d) solar radiation recorded over time on a sunny day from 09:00 to 18:00 (solid green line) with tracing of internal relative humidity (RH; background color map) and temperatures of the F-F-wood surface (red broken line), internal air (blue broken line), and condenser (violet broken line), (e) evaluation of water purity using a multimeter with a constant distance between electrodes (the results demonstrated a high purity of purified water).

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