A hierarchical porous aerohydrogel for enhanced water evaporation

Xiaorui Li; Pengxu Wang; Qianyun Lu; Houze Yao; Ce Yang; Yanming Zhao; Jiayi Hu; Hongfeng Zhou; Mengyao Song; Huhu Cheng; Hongliang Dai; Xingang Wang; Hongya Geng

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2023.120447

A hierarchical porous aerohydrogel for enhanced water evaporation

Water Res. 2023 Oct 1:244:120447. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120447. Epub 2023 Aug 6.

Authors

Xiaorui Li¹, Pengxu Wang², Qianyun Lu³, Houze Yao⁴, Ce Yang⁴, Yanming Zhao², Jiayi Hu², Hongfeng Zhou², Mengyao Song², Huhu Cheng⁴, Hongliang Dai⁵, Xingang Wang⁶, Hongya Geng⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, PR China; Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China.
² Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China.
³ School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, PR China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China.
⁵ School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, PR China. Electronic address: daihongliang@just.edu.cn.
⁶ School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, PR China. Electronic address: hofs@just.edu.cn.
⁷ Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China. Electronic address: geng.hongya@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn.

PMID: 37574625
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120447

Abstract

Natural solar-powered steam generation provides a promising strategy to deal with deteriorating water resources. However, the practical applications of this strategy are limited by the tedious manufacturing of structures at micro-nano levels to concentrate heat and transport water to heat-localized regions. Herein, this work reports the fabrication of hierarchically porous aerohydrogel with enhanced light absorption and thermal localization at the air-solid interface. This aerohydrogel steam generator is fabricated by a simple yet controllable micropore generation approach to assemble air and hydrogel into hierarchically porous gas-solid hybrids. The tunable micropore size in a wide range from 99±49µm to 316±58μm not only enables contrasting sunlight absorptance (0.2 - 2.5µm) by reducing the reflection of solar light but also harnesses water transportation to the heating region via a capillary force-driven liquid flow. Therefore, a solar-vapor conversion efficiency of 91.3% under one sun irradiation was achieved using this aerohydrogel evaporator, reaching a ready evaporation rate of 2.76kg m^-2 h^-1 and 3.71kg m^-2 h^-1 under one and two sun irradiations, respectively. Our work provides a versatile and scalable approach to engineering porous hydrogels for highly efficient steam generation and opens an avenue for other potential practical applications based on this aerohydrogel.

Keywords: Aerohydrogels; Hierarchical pores; Photothermal management; Solar-powered steam generation; Water purification.

MeSH terms

Biological Transport
Commerce
Porosity
Steam*
Water*

Substances

Water
Steam