Self-Floating Carbon Nanotube Membrane on Macroporous Silica Substrate for Highly Efficient Solar-Driven Interfacial Water Evaporation

Given the emerging energy and water challenges facing mankind, solar-driven water evaporation has been gaining renewed research attention from both academia and industry as an energy-efficient means of wastewater treatment and clean water production. In this project, a bilayered material, consisting of a top self-floating hydrophobic CNT membrane and a bottom hydrophilic macroporous silica substrate, was logically designed and fabricated for highly energy-efficient solar-driven water evaporation based on the concept of interfacial heating. The top thin CNT membrane with excellent light adsorption capability acted as photothermal component, which harvested and converted almost the entire incident light to heat…

• KA
  King Abdullah University of Science and Technology