Benefiting from the abundant solar energy and the emergence of photothermal conversion equipment, solar-driven water evaporation has shown great potential in seawater desalination. One common problem for solar-thermal evaporation is that the salt crystallized on the surface of solar absorbers during the seawater evaporation process will significantly deteriorate the continuity and efficiency of the evaporation process. In most reports, efforts have been made to transfer the accumulated salts, while the studies on preventing salt crystallization, which leads to better continuity of the production, are limited. Herein, a spontaneous salt-preventing solar-thermal water evaporator was designed, utilizing a dual-mode water transfer structure consisting of in-plane diffusion and in-tube migration. The dual-mode structural system gave rise to uniform and continuous water transfer, efficiently suppressing the salt concentration in the evaporator. As a result, salt crystallization was scarcely found on the surface of the evaporator under 1 sun irradiation for an ultralong time (200 h), demonstrating its high efficiency in inhibiting salt crystallization. In addition, the small contact area between the water and the evaporator could reduce the heat loss during the solar-thermal evaporation process, which further improved the water evaporation rate (1.64 kg m-2 h-1).
Keywords: carbon nanotube; dual-mode water transfer; salt-preventing; seawater desalination; solar−thermal conversion.