Highly efficient and salt rejecting solar evaporation via a wick-free confined water layer

Recent advances in thermally localized solar evaporation hold significant promise for vapor generation, seawater desalination, wastewater treatment, and medical sterilization. However, salt accumulation is one of the key bottlenecks for reliable adoption. Here, we demonstrate highly efficient (>80% solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency) and salt rejecting (20 weight % salinity) solar evaporation by engineering the fluidic flow in a wick-free confined water layer. With mechanistic modeling and experimental characterization of salt transport, we show that natural convection can be triggered in the confined water. More notably, there exists a regime enabling simultaneous thermal localization and salt rejection,…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: DMR-1419807, 1419807
• US
  United States Agency for International Development
• SA
  Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Centre
• SB
  Stony Brook University
• MR
  Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University

  Award: DMR-1419807
• DO
  Division of Materials Research

  Awards: 1419807, DMR-1419807