Advanced Materials: economical and efficient mixed hydrogel evaporator

seawater desalination sewage purification are important means to obtain sufficient clean water resources. Most of the traditional technologies are based on heat energy or filter membrane which requires a lot of power consumption large-scale infrastructure so they are not suitable for remote economically backward areas. Solar water evaporation is regarded as one of the most promising environmental protection technologies to alleviate the shortage of fresh water. However the biggest challenge is that the natural sunlight is not strong enough (≤ 1kW KM-2) to power the efficient water evaporation system. In recent years researchers have accelerated the evaporation process by introducing efficient photothermal conversion materials reasonably designing nanostructures adjusting the interaction between polymer networks water molecules. Among them the hydrogel solar evaporator has been able to achieve high evaporation rate under one sun (3.2 kilograms per square metre) but the technical cost still needs further optimization. It is difficult to realize the high efficiency high quality of water purification system.

Professor Yu Guihua of University of Texas-Austin introduced the renewable biomass konjac glucomannan (KGM) into the polyvinyl alcohol network framework (PVA) with low cost easy to synthesize high yield iron matrix metal organic frameworks (PVA) designed a low cost energy efficient hybrid hydrogel evaporator (HHE). The

HHE can be synthesized by in-situ co gel reaction of PVA KGM. In the experimental preparation the magnetic Fe MOF nanoparticles were gathered to one side of the evaporator by simply using magnets which greatly reduced the required mass of nanoparticles ensured efficient solar energy absorption. KGM has good heat insulation performance which helps to concentrate heat on the evaporator surface. In addition KGM helps to promote the water transport of pore structure enhances the hydration ability of hydrogels thus further reducing the enthalpy of water evaporation. The overall material cost of HHE is very low which costs only $14.9 per square meter can achieve a high water evaporation rate of up to 3.2 kg per square meter per hour under one solar intensity. HHE is more cost-effective than most of the current solar water purification systems can meet the needs of people in various areas. HHE has excellent solar water purification performance. The experimental results show that HHE can work stably in various extreme environments effectively remove various salt ions in seawater has excellent self-cleaning ability to prevent salt scale. With a large amount of hydroxyl (- OH) provided by KGM HHE can adsorb heavy metal ions organic dyes at the same time which can reduce the concentration of heavy metal ions (including volatile mercury ions) by 6-9 orders of magnitude. The overall purification performance of HHE shows its great potential in seawater desalination wastewater purification.

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