Photothermal Membrane Distillation for Seawater Desalination

Thermoplasmonic effects notably improve the efficiency of vacuum membrane distillation, an economically sustainable tool for high-quality seawater desalination. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes filled with spherical silver nanoparticles are used, whose size is tuned for the aim. With the addition of plasmonic nanoparticles in the membrane, the transmembrane flux increases by 11 times, and, moreover, the temperature at the membrane interface is higher than bulk temperature. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset.…