Novel and efficient Bi-doped CoTe nano-solar evaporators embedded on leno weave cotton gauze for efficient solar-driven desalination

Javeria Tabassum; Nadeem Baig; Manzar Sohail; Ayman Nafady; Syed Shoaib Ahmad Shah; Anwar Ul-Hamid; Panagiotis Tsiakaras

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.12.089

Novel and efficient Bi-doped CoTe nano-solar evaporators embedded on leno weave cotton gauze for efficient solar-driven desalination

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Mar 15:658:758-771. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.12.089. Epub 2023 Dec 17.

Authors

Javeria Tabassum¹, Nadeem Baig², Manzar Sohail³, Ayman Nafady⁴, Syed Shoaib Ahmad Shah¹, Anwar Ul-Hamid⁵, Panagiotis Tsiakaras⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, School of Natural Sciences (SNS), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), H-12, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
² Interdisciplinary Research Center for Membranes and Water Security, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Chemistry, School of Natural Sciences (SNS), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), H-12, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan. Electronic address: manzar.sohail@sns.nust.edu.pk.
⁴ Chemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Core Research Facilities, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Laboratory of Alternative Energy Conversion Systems, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, 38834 Volos, Greece. Electronic address: tsiak@mie.uth.gr.

PMID: 38150932
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.12.089

Abstract

Solar-driven desalination is considered an alternative to the conventional desalination due to its nearly zero carbon footprint and ease of operating in remote areas. Water can be purified wherever sunlight is available, providing a viable solution to water shortage. Metal chalcogenide-based materials are revolutionary for solar evaporators due to their excellent photothermal conversion efficiency, facile synthesis methods, stability, and low cost. Herein we present a prototype Bi-doped CoTe nano-solar evaporator embedded on leno weave cotton gauze (Bi/CoTe@CG) using the sonication process. The nano-solar evaporator was synthesized using a simple hydrothermal approach to provide an opportunity to scale up. The as designed solar evaporator consisting of 5 % Bi/CoTe@CG showed an excellent water flux of 2.38 kg m^-2 h^-1 upon one sun radiation (1 kW m^-2), considered among the highest literature-reported values. The introduced solar evaporator showed excellent solar efficiency of 96.7 %, good stability, and reusability for five cycles of one hour. The best doping ratio of Bi in CoTe was obtained as Bi_0.5Co_9.5Te with a contact angle of 11.9° in powder form. The hydrophilic nature of the designed solar-evaporator increased the water interaction with the embedded nano-solar evaporator, which helps the transfer of the heat to nearby water molecules, break their hydrogen bonding and increase the evaporation rate. The ion concentration, of the desalinated pure water collected using Bi/CoTe@CG, decreased by many orders of magnitude and it is far below the limit of WHO standards for Na⁺ and K⁺. Thus, a self-floating Bi-doped CoTe nano-solar evaporator deposited on cotton gauze (CG) is an excellent solar evaporator for seawater desalination. The proposed solar evaporator is another step towards introducing environmentally friendly desalination methods.

Keywords: Bi/CoTe nano-solar evaporators; Cotton gauze; Photothermal conversion; Solar-driven desalination.