Carbonized loofah and MOF‐801 of synergistic effect for efficient solar steam generation

• Published in: International journal of energy research Vol. 45; no. 7; pp. 10599 - 10608
• Main Authors: Guo, Ming‐Xi, Wu, Jing‐Bin, Zhao, Hong‐Yang, Li, Feng‐Hai, Min, Fan‐Qi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Inc 10.06.2021; Hindawi Limited
• Subjects: Absorption; carbonized loofah; Channel pores; Electromagnetic absorption; Evaporation; Evaporation rate; Evaporators; Light absorption; MOF‐801; Optical density; Performance enhancement; Photothermal conversion; solar steam generation; Stability; Steam; Steam generation; Synergistic effect; Transpiration; Transportation; Water absorption; Water purification; Water transfer; Water transport; Water treatment
• ISSN: 0363-907X; 1099-114X
• DOI: 10.1002/er.6547

Summary Water transport capacity is one of the key factors for solar steam generation. Inspired by the transportation of water by vascular bundles in plants, the economical carbonized loofah (CL) with reticular structure and MOF‐801 with water absorption and rich pores were selected to form a solar evaporator. As vascular bundles, MOF‐801 provides abundant channels for rapid water transfer within the light absorbing layer. The excellent photothermal conversion performance of CL provides sufficient heat to convert the water quickly transported to the top of the light absorption layer into steam in time, just like plant transpiration. Thus, the evaporation efficiency of water was improved. The results show that MOF‐801@CL composite has excellent hydrophilicity. Under an optical density of the 1 kW m−2, the water evaporation rate of MOF‐801@CL was 1.42 kg m−2 h−1, which was about 1.2 times that of CL. The solar‐driven water evaporation efficiency reaches 88.9%. Furthermore, MOF‐801@CL has excellent stability in water evaporation and has great application potential in water purification. This design principle provides a potential way to improve the performance of solar steam generation and preparing solar water evaporation materials with high comprehensive benefit. In this paper, carbonized loofah was loaded on MOF‐801 with water absorption and porous structure as an absorbing layer for solar steam generation. By synergistic effect of MOF‐801 and carbonized loofah, enhance the evaporation efficiency of the material. The material has excellent cyclic performance of water evaporation and metal ion rejection performance. This work provides a universal strategy for other solar steam generating materials to improve water evaporation performance.