Efficient Solar-Driven Interfacial Water Evaporator using Hydrogel Modified Carbon-Based Biomass with Abundant Microchannels

The conventional sea water desalination technologies are not yet adopted worldwide, especially in the third world countries due to their high capital cost as well as large energy requirement. To solve this issue in a sustainable way an interfacial solar water evaporation device is designed and proposed in this article using the branches of Prunus serrulata (PB). The PB has abundant microchannels and shows excellent photothermal conversion capability after carbonization. Moreover, the easy access to raw materials and the facile fabrication process makes the solar water evaporating device very cost effective for seawater desalination application. Experiments show that in the presence of the fabricated evaporator the evaporation rate of water can reach 3.5 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun, which is superior to many similar experimental devices. In addition, its advantages, such as effective sewage purification capability, low cost, and environmental friendliness, make this evaporator highly competitive in the extensive promotion of this technology and can be considered as a new sustainable solution for seawater desalination with great application potential and prospects. A solar evaporator based on hydrogel modified biomass material is fabricated. The carbonized branches are modified by polyvinyl alcohol. The device has an excellent evaporation rate of 3.5 kg m-2; h-1 and a solar steam efficiency of 98.5% under 1 sun illumination. image