Salt Resistant PPy/MXene Flexible Waffle Type Fabric for Efficient Solar Evaporation and Water Purification Production

• Published in: Macromolecular rapid communications. 2024-12, Vol.45 (23), p.e2400519-n/a
• Main Authors: Su, Jinbu, Xie, Yunong, Zhang, Pengkui, Zhang, Kuangtaibei, Wang, Jilun, Zhao, Heng, Xu, Yuyi, Lin, Xuli, Shi, Chenyi, Cao, Xiaoyu, Wang, Chengbing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Desalination; Efficiency; Evaporation; Evaporation rate; Evaporators; Fabrics; Light sources; long‐time water evaporation; MXene; MXenes; Particle Size; Polymers - chemistry; Polypyrroles; Pyrroles - chemistry; Salts; Salts - chemistry; Seawater; Sunlight; Temperature effects; Textiles; waffle‐like fabric; Water - chemistry; Water absorption; Water purification; Water Purification - methods
• ISSN: 1022-1336; 1521-3927; 1521-3927
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.202400519

In recent years, with the development of solar seawater desalination technology, many solar evaporators are affected by precipitated salts during the evaporation process, which can reduce efficiency. In this work, flexible fabrics made of polypyrrole (PPy)/MXene are obtained by impregnating the prepared PPy ink onto waffle like fabrics. The combination of PPy and fabric greatly improves the water absorption and evaporation performance of the fabric. The average evaporation rate of this structure is 1.43 kg m−2 h−1, and the average evaporation efficiency under a single light source is 85.13%. After a 15‐h testing cycle and a total of 8 cycles, lasting nearly 120 h, the performance of the device remained stable. The structural characteristics of waffle fabric, based on the Marangoni thermal effect, make it possible to suppress salt precipitation during evaporation, avoiding large salt particles covering the evaporation surface and reducing efficiency. This experiment successfully demonstrated long‐term stable water evaporation, providing new ideas for the development of fabric evaporators. By regulating the surface structure, the flat surface is modified into a special surface with certain height differences macroscopically. Temperature and concentration gradients are created through height differences, effectively utilizing the Marangoni thermal effect to accelerate salt reflux, reduce salt precipitation during evaporation, and ultimately achieve efficient and stable seawater desalination.