Tree-inspired coir fiber-based array evaporator with rapid water transportation and effective solar water evaporation

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2024-08, Vol.494, p.153010, Article 153010
• Main Authors: Gui, Ziyu, Yang, Zirui, Xiang, Daoping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Array evaporator; Carbon coating; Coir fiber; Multidirectional water transportation; Solar water evaporation
• ISSN: 1385-8947
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2024.153010

•Easily available coir fibers were supplied for the production of evaporators.•Carbon nanoparticles coating on coir fibers enabled the photo-thermal conversion.•Carbon-coated coir fibers were woven into units for assembling array evaporators.•Tree-like multidirectional water transportation was realized by the array design.•The highest evaporation rate of 4.19 kg m-2h−1 was achieved by the evaporator. Coconut husk as a raw material for the production of solar water evaporators has received considerable attention due to its abundance and availability. However, common treatment methods such as carbonization applied to capacitate the coconut husks for photothermal conversion were not favor for realizing rapid evaporation, as they failed to exploit the original structure of coconut husks. Herein, coir fibers extracted from the coconut husks were directly supplied to the production of functionalized evaporators with carbon nanoparticle coating, which preserved the pristine structure of coir fibers and allowed them to rapidly transport water in multiple directions like trees. These fibers were further assembled into array evaporators to maximize their exposed surface area for efficient evaporation. As a result, the carbon-coated coir fiber array evaporator prepared in the present work showed the highest evaporation rate of 4.19 kg m-2h−1 during solar water evaporation experiments under 1.0 sun illumination. Our work presents an approach for achieving effective solar water evaporation based on carbon-coated coir fiber array evaporator with large exposed surface area and tree-inspired multidirectional fast water transportation.