Free-standing reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membrane for salt-rejecting solar desalination via size effect

Nanophotonics

article

Pengyu Zhuang¹  Hanyu Fu¹  Ning Xu¹  Bo Li¹  Jun Xu³  Lin Zhou¹ 

[1] National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, School of Physics, Key Laboratory of Intelligent Optical Sensing and Integration, Nanjing University;Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University;School of Electronics Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Photonic and Electronic Materials, Nanjing University

关键词: interfacial solar evaporation;    rGO membrane;    salt rejection;   

DOI  :  10.1515/nanoph-2020-0396

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

Interfacial solar vapor generation has revived the solar-thermal-based desalination due to its high conversion efficiency of solar energy. However, most solar evaporators reported so far suffer from severe salt-clogging problems during solar desalination, leading to performance degradation and structural instability. Here, we demonstrate a free-standing salt-rejecting reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membrane serving as an efficient, stable, and antisalt-fouling solar evaporator. The evaporation rate of the membrane reaches up to 1.27 kg m −2  h −1 (solar–thermal conversion efficiency ∼79%) under one sun, out of 3.5 wt% brine. More strikingly, due to the tailored narrow interlayer spacing, the rGO membrane can effectively reject ions, preventing salt accumulation even for high salinity brine (∼8 wt% concentration). With enabled salt-antifouling capability, flexibility, as well as stability, our rGO membrane serves as a promising solar evaporator for high salinity brine treatment.

【 授权许可】

CC BY