Making Interfacial Solar Evaporation of Seawater Faster than Fresh Water

Interfacial solar evaporation-based seawater desalination is regarded as one of the most promising strategies to alleviate freshwater scarcity. However, the solar evaporation rate of real seawater is significantly constricted by the ubiquitous salts present in seawater. In addition to the common issue of salt accumulation on the evaporation surface during solar evaporation, strong hydration between salt ions and water molecules leads to a lower evaporation rate for real seawater compared to pure water. Here a facile and general strategy is developed to reverse this occurrence, that is, making real seawater evaporation faster than pure water. By simply introducing specific mineral materials into the floating…

• AN
  Australian National Fabrication Facility
• CS
  China Scholarship Council
• AR
  Australian Research Council

  Awards: DP240101581, DP220100583, FT190100485