Carboxymethylcellulose sodium-derived carbon aerogels for solar-driven water purification

Chaoming Wang; Peng Zhu; Zheng Huang; Lei Zhang; Shuaiao Xie; Zhiyong Qi

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142109

Carboxymethylcellulose sodium-derived carbon aerogels for solar-driven water purification

Chemosphere. 2024 Apr 22:358:142109. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142109. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chaoming Wang¹, Peng Zhu², Zheng Huang², Lei Zhang², Shuaiao Xie², Zhiyong Qi³

Affiliations

¹ Applied Mechanics and Structure Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610031, China. Electronic address: hbdxwcm@hotmail.com.
² Applied Mechanics and Structure Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610031, China.
³ Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu, 610000, Sichuan, China.

PMID: 38657692
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142109

Abstract

Recycling polluted water via different techniques has become one of the most feasible ways to solve the freshwater crisis. We describe a novel method to prepare reusable and efficient photothermal energy conversion materials for water purification. Using crosslinked xerogels as precursor, the porous and interconnected carboxymethylcellulose sodium-derived carbon aerogels (abbreviated as CCAs) with good hydrophilic performance and strong light absorption capability are firstly fabricated through pyrolysis. Photothermal measurement results show that CCA15 exhibit excellent solar steam generation rate of 2.31 kg m^-2 h^-1 with high light-to-vapor conversion efficiency of 95.9% under 1 sun illumination. In addition, the feasible application of CCA15 for efficient water purification under 1 sun irradiation using a homemade water treatment device has been demonstrated successfully. The as-prepared CCAs shown in here can be a continuable solution to mitigate the global freshwater crisis.

Keywords: Carbon aerogel; Carboxymethylcellulose sodium; Photothermal; Solar steam generation; Water purification.