Luminescence Reduced Graphene Oxide Based Photothermal Purification of Seawater for Drinkable Purpose

Jin Huang; Zhen Chu; Christina Xing; Wenting Li; Zhongxin Liu; Wei Chen

doi:10.3390/nano12101622

Luminescence Reduced Graphene Oxide Based Photothermal Purification of Seawater for Drinkable Purpose

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 May 10;12(10):1622. doi: 10.3390/nano12101622.

Authors

Jin Huang^{1

2}, Zhen Chu^{1

2}, Christina Xing³, Wenting Li⁴, Zhongxin Liu^{1

2}, Wei Chen⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Tropical Island Resources of Ministry of Education, School of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
² Hainan Provincial Key Lab of Fine Chem, School of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
³ Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0059, USA.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Functional Molecular Engineering of Guangdong Province, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.

Abstract

Getting drinking water from seawater is a hope and long-term goal that has long been explored. Here, we report graphene-loaded nonwoven fabric membranes for seawater purification based on photothermal heating. The photothermal membrane of non-woven fabric loaded with graphene oxide has high light absorption and strong heating effect, and its evaporation rate about 5 times higher than that of non-woven fabric. Under the condition of light intensity of 1 kW m^-2, the evaporation rate can reach 1.33 kg m^-2 h^-1. The results of cell activity test showed that the concentration of bacteria after photothermal membrane treatment decreased significantly. The photothermal membrane can be used for many times without greatly reducing the evaporation efficiency, which means that it is suitable for regional water purification and seawater desalination.

Keywords: air–water interface; cell viability; cytotoxicity; graphene oxide nonwoven membrane; photothermal conversion; solar evaporation; water purification.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by High-level talents project of Hainan Basic and Applied Basic Research Program grant number 2019RC141 and partially by UT Arlington.