Desalination最新文献

{"title":"Coupled in-situ H2O2 generation and utilization over donor-acceptor covalent organic frameworks for rapid photocatalytic U(VI) removal","authors":"Huazhen Rong ,&nbsp;Jiashun Mao ,&nbsp;Yue Ma,&nbsp;Xiaohui Yan,&nbsp;Min Luo,&nbsp;Handan Wen,&nbsp;Tao Liu,&nbsp;Yihui Yuan,&nbsp;Ning Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119914","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119914","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Uranium-contaminated water streams associated with nuclear fuel cycle operations represent an emerging challenge in water purification, combining radiological risk with the opportunity for resource recovery. Developing sustainable uranium removal technologies that operate under mild conditions while minimizing chemical inputs remains a critical task, particularly for integration into advanced water treatment systems. Herein, we report a donor-acceptor covalent organic framework (DANT-TFPT) featuring an in-framework coupled H₂O₂ production and consumption (IFC-HPC) architecture for photocatalytic uranium removal. By co-localizing oxygen reduction reaction catalytic sites and uranyl-binding pockets within a single scaffold, photogenerated H₂O₂ is produced and consumed in-situ, minimizing diffusion losses and nonproductive decomposition. Together with strong donor-acceptor coupling and abundant N/O-rich coordination domains, the DANT-TFPT exhibits a high H₂O₂ evolution rate under ambient air to achieve an exceptional U(VI) uptake capacity of 745.7 mg g⁻¹ with a fast removal rate of 67.8 mg g⁻¹ h⁻¹ without sacrificial reagents in uranium-contaminated wastewater. This study demonstrates a chemical-efficient and environmentally benign strategy for the removal and recovery of uranium from contaminated waters, highlighting the potential of integrated photocatalytic-sorptive materials for emerging contaminant control and resource recovery in water purification and desalination-related treatment processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119914"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146075029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"MXene-based membranes for advanced desalination: Properties, engineering strategies, and emerging applications","authors":"Salman Khan ,&nbsp;Sami Ur Rahman ,&nbsp;Abdullah Shah ,&nbsp;Naveed Akhtar ,&nbsp;Zahid Hussain ,&nbsp;Naveed Ahmad ,&nbsp;Ilunga Kamika ,&nbsp;Shohreh Azizi ,&nbsp;Malik Maaza","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119860","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119860","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Membrane-based desalination is a promising solution, but conventional polymer membranes suffer from limitations in salt rejection, fouling resistance, and chemical stability. Two-dimensional MXene materials have emerged as promising alternatives: their lamellar structure, tunable interlayer spacing, surface terminations, and high electrical conductivity enable fast water transport and selective ion sieving. This comprehensive review provides an updated overview of recent advances in MXene-based membranes for various desalination processes (reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, forward osmosis, capacitive deionization, and membrane distillation). This work discusses fundamental MXene characteristics relevant to desalination including interlayer engineering, surface chemistry, and mechanical robustness and surveys a wide range of membrane architectures: pure MXene laminates, MXene–polymer composites, hybrid nanomaterial systems, and smart designs (bio-inspired, stimuli-responsive, and self-healing). This analysis reveals that MXene membranes consistently exhibit ultrahigh water permeability and high salt rejection across multiple desalination contexts, often surpassing conventional membranes. Strategies like crosslinking and composite fabrication have mitigated challenges of swelling and oxidation, while MXenes' intrinsic conductivity opens new antifouling and tunability mechanisms. By synthesizing knowledge from material design through system-level implementation, this review uniquely bridges fundamental science and practical deployment of MXene membranes, identifying remaining challenges such as long-term stability under realistic conditions and a deeper understanding of ion transport mechanisms, and outlines future research directions to advance scalable MXene-enabled desalination technologies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119860"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146074464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhanced brackish water desalination performance of 3D invasive plant wood-based evaporator via coupled photo-thermal and Joule-heating effect","authors":"Chun-Hong Zhou ,&nbsp;Ying-Lin He ,&nbsp;Zhuo Chen ,&nbsp;Dilibinuer Niyazimaimaiti ,&nbsp;Jincheng Wu ,&nbsp;Yuan Fan ,&nbsp;Amanula Yimingniyazi ,&nbsp;Peng-Cheng Ma ,&nbsp;Abudukeremu Kadier","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119875","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119875","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Freshwater shortage, driven by global population growth, industrialization, and climate change, demands the development of effective water purification technologies. Brackish water and seawater desalination is a promising solution, yet conventional desalination techniques are hampered by their high costs, complexity, and energy intensity. Solar interfacial evaporation (SIE) has exhibited high efficiency and environmental benefits, but its practical application is hindered by diurnal intermittency, weather instability, and salt fouling. To address these challenges, electrothermal heating is incorporated with SIE in this study. A thermoelectric layer (Ag/PPy-BF) was formed on basalt fabric (BF) substrate by depositing polypyrrole (PPy) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles, which was then combined with a 3D wood-based evaporator to construct an electrothermal-assisted interface evaporation system. Under combined 1 sun irradiation and 1.5 V Joule-heating, the system achieved an evaporation rate of 7.46 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹, and exceptional salt resistance, maintaining a rate of 4.71 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ in 10.5 wt% NaCl solution. Furthermore, by incorporating photovoltaic panels, a fully solar-powered, photo-electrothermal complementary system (P-ECIES) was developed. In the test using actual brackish water, P-ECIES operated stably for 16 h at 1.5 V Joule-heating, with an evaporation rate of 4.31–4.68 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹, and then operated for 8 h under 1 sun irradiation with an evaporation rate of 1.75–1.93 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹, showing robust performance despite minor salt accumulation. The system produced high-purity water with significantly reduced key pollutants (COD, TDS, SS, turbidity), and also achieved a salt ion removal rate over 99.91%. These findings evidence the viability of P-ECIES for round-the-clock desalination of brackish water and its potential in addressing freshwater shortage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119875"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145976071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Seed induced calcium sulfate crystallization for high salinity mine water softening: Influence of solution composition on crystallization behaviors","authors":"Anni Xiao ,&nbsp;Caiyun Jia ,&nbsp;Xiaoxia Fang ,&nbsp;Pujun Wang ,&nbsp;Qi Zhuo ,&nbsp;LuYao Wang ,&nbsp;Yixin Li ,&nbsp;Hao Li ,&nbsp;Zhipeng Yu ,&nbsp;Haijun Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119918","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119918","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The removal of Ca²⁺ is an essential step in the treatment of high salinity mine water, and the endogenous Ca²⁺ and large amounts of SO₄²⁻ ions therein endow seed induced calcium sulfate crystallization with a significant advantage as a pre-softening step in water treatment, but the influence of solution composition on calcium sulfate crystallization behaviors remains largely unexplored. In this work, it is demonstrated that seed induced calcium sulfate crystallization can reduce Ca²⁺ concentration from 900 mg/L to the theoretical saturation solubility of gypsum (476 mg/L). The addition of seed crystal significantly improves Ca²⁺ removal rate and efficiency by providing adequate growth sites. The increase of solution temperature, Na⁺ concentration and Mg²⁺ concentration decreases the saturation index of gypsum, thereby reducing Ca²⁺ removal efficiency. Specifically, a lower HCO₃⁻ concentration suppresses Ca²⁺ removal rate and efficiency, whereas a higher concentration at 800 mg/L alleviates the inhibitory effect owing to the coprecipitation of CaCO₃. Coexistence of multiple ions exhibits a synergistic enhancement in Ca²⁺ removal at low concentrations, but restrains the removal at high concentrations compared to individual ions. In situ liquid cell microscope observation showed that seed induced crystallization occurred through the formation of multiple regular jagged protrusions along the (010) plane of gypsum seed crystal via a classical ion addition growth pathway. Altogether, this work provides a novel comprehensive understanding of solution mediated calcium sulfate crystallization behaviors concerning high salinity mine water softening and offers broader implications for the global sulfur cycle and sustainable water resource management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119918"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146075024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Electrosynthesis of LiAl-CO3 LDHs for lithium recovery from lithium precipitation mother liquor: process optimization and lithium separation mechanism analysis","authors":"Weixuan Yan,&nbsp;Zhuohao Zheng,&nbsp;Yuan Hu,&nbsp;Gang Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119902","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119902","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>LiAl-CO₃ layered double hydroxides (LiAl-CO₃ LDHs) are adsorbents promising for lithium recovery from low-grade carbonate-type salt-lake brines due to their excellent structural stability and selective lithium-ion affinity. However, conventional synthesis routes, such as chemical precipitation and hydrothermal methods, are limited by high energy consumption, long reaction times, and complex operations procedures, which hinder large-scale application. Herein, a facile and efficient electrochemical strategy was developed for the synthesis of LiAl-CO₃ LDHs. The effects of electrolyte type, Li/Al molar ratio, and reaction temperature on LDHs formation were systematically investigated. Under the optimal conditions (Na₂SO₄ as electrolyte, Li/Al molar ratio of 4.5:1, reaction temperature of 80 °C and pH = 11), LiAl-CO₃ LDHs with a well-defined layered structure, high specific surface area, and the highest lithium content of 15.53 mg/g were obtained. Moreover, real lithium precipitation mother liquor was directly utilized as lithium and carbonate sources to synthesize LiAl-CO₃ LDHs, yielding a lithium content of 4.02 mg/g. Lithium was efficiently desorbed from LiAl-CO₃ LDHs via the hydrothermal process, achieving an average desorption rate of 90.72%. The lithium desorption mechanism was revealed through structural characterization before and after hydrothermal treatment. This work provides a sustainable and scalable synthesis route for aluminum-based lithium adsorbents toward efficient lithium recovery from industrial lithium precipitation mother liquor.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119902"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From commercial melamine foam to C-O-M coupled La-doped MgAl-borate LDH/nitrogen-doped carbon composite: a multipollutant adsorbent for wastewater remediation over a broad pH range","authors":"Chen Tan ,&nbsp;Jing Miao ,&nbsp;Kanghui Liu ,&nbsp;Aichun Zhao ,&nbsp;Xinlong Guo ,&nbsp;Linjie Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119867","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119867","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Developing cost-effective adsorbents capable of treating multipollutant wastewater under fluctuating pH conditions remains a major challenge for layered double hydroxide (LDH)-based materials. Herein, we report a La-doped MgAl-borate LDH/Nitrogen-doped carbon hybrid (LaMgAl-BLDH/NC) constructed through a C-O-M interfacial coupling, in which hydroxyl-rich N-doped carbon reacts with the metal‑oxygen layers of LaMgAl-BLDH to form robust covalent C-O-M linkages. This bonding-directed assembly produces a chemically durable and strongly integrated 3D porous network with enhanced charge heterogeneity and improved resistance to acidic or alkaline corrosion. Benefiting from this strengthened interfacial coupling and the synergistic effects of La incorporation, the LaMgAl-BLDH/NC composite exhibits high removal capacities toward structurally diverse pollutants, achieving maximum capacities of 995.20 mg/g for Congo red, 3020.19 mg/g for malachite green, and 151.34 mg/g for phosphate. Notably, compare with conventional LDHs that undergo structural degradation in acidic or alkaline environments, the C-O-M reinforced hybrid maintains excellent performance over a broad pH range of 4–10. The maximum adsorption capacities of the adsorbent for Congo red, malachite green and phosphate at pH 2, 4 and 12 correspond to 79.65%, 87.32% and 58.83% of those obtained at their respective optimal pH values. Mechanistic analysis reveals that electrostatic interaction, ion exchange, π-π stacking, pore filling jointly govern the removal process. Optimization via Box-Behnken response surface methodology further enhances removal efficiency by identifying favorable synthesis and operational conditions. This work establishes a generalizable, low-cost C-O-M bonding strategy for pH-tolerant LDH/carbon hybrids, enabling efficient remediation of multipollutant industrial wastewater.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119867"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145963158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A synergistic strategy to overcome temperature and concentration polarization in a joule-heating CNT/PTFE membrane distillation: From membrane preparation to process mathematic simulation","authors":"Tiantian Xu ,&nbsp;Longji Li ,&nbsp;Xiaojia Li ,&nbsp;Liang Feng ,&nbsp;Siyu Chen ,&nbsp;Yang Xu ,&nbsp;Yan Li ,&nbsp;Zhiqing Luo ,&nbsp;Zhirui Chen ,&nbsp;Hongyi Li ,&nbsp;Rui Wang ,&nbsp;Feiyun Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119919","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119919","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising desalination technology, yet its performance is constrained by temperature polarization. This study introduced a novel Joule-heating carbon nanotube (CNT)-modified polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane for direct contact MD, uniquely addressing polarization through integrated electrothermal activation. The membrane was optimized via systematic fabrication (PVP/CNT mass ratio 0.5:1, CNT loading 1.04 mg·cm⁻², PDMS 2 wt%), achieving low sheet resistance (15.2 Ω/sq) and efficient surface heating (132.7 °C at 20 V). Unlike conventional MD, applied voltage significantly enhanced flux (from 1.08 to 2.26 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹) while maintaining high salt rejection (&gt;99.9%), with a 200% flux improvement and 63% reduction in specific energy consumption at 25 V. Crucially, this work combined experimental optimization with numerical simulation to reveal the critical trade-off between temperature and concentration polarization under electrothermal conditions, identifying an optimal flow rate (1 mL·min⁻¹) that maximized flux (4.25 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹) and evaporation efficiency. Long-term testing with real seawater confirmed structural stability and consistent performance. This study established electrothermal MD as a viable, energy-efficient strategy for desalination, providing key insights into material design and process optimization for scalable applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119919"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146075022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Electrodialysis seawater desalination rate prediction based on a convolutional attention network with global-inverted and local bottleneck structures","authors":"Pengfei Wang ,&nbsp;Haoye Chen ,&nbsp;Qinlong Ren","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119904","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119904","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Electrodialysis desalination is an effective solution to the global freshwater crisis, accurate desalination rate prediction is critical to its performance enhancement. Nevertheless, conventional multiphysics-based numerical simulations are computationally expensive, while experimental methods are costly and lack global optimization capability. This study proposes a convolutional attention network with global-inverted and local bottleneck (GILB) structures for electrodialysis desalination rate prediction. The model optimizes the overall architecture of CoAtNet through a global inverted bottleneck design, while incorporating multiscale parallel convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and local bottleneck structure into its Transformer module to enhance both global/local spatial feature extraction capabilities and modeling efficiency. Using sample data generated by a COMSOL Multiphysics-based numerical model of an electrodialysis seawater desalination device, ablation studies were conducted on its key components, along with benchmark comparisons against mainstream deep learning models. The ablation study results demonstrate that the proposed GILB structures and multiscale parallel CNNs significantly improve the prediction accuracy of the baseline framework. Specifically, they achieve a 78.34% reduction in the mean absolute error for predicting the average outlet ion concentration of the device, while also reducing model parameter scale by 45.28% compared to the base model. Benchmark comparisons demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms mainstream deep learning models such as CoAtNet, Transformer, and ResNet, with the mean absolute error reduced by at least 32.07%. This study provides significant insights for high-accuracy performance prediction and optimal design of electrodialysis desalination systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119904"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146074465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The investigation of interfacial polymerization and separation mechanisms of novel Tröger's base-based polyamide membranes via molecular dynamics simulations","authors":"Wenxuan Tian ,&nbsp;Lidong Gong ,&nbsp;Lifen Liu ,&nbsp;Chunyang Yu ,&nbsp;Yongfeng Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119871","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119871","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Due to increasing water scarcity and pollution, polyamide (PA) membranes are widely used for reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) in water purification and desalination. A novel Tröger's base (TB) diamine (TBDA)-containing PA membrane has attracted significant attention for its high energy efficiency and excellent comprehensive performance. However, the mechanisms underlying interfacial polymerization (IP) during membrane formation and its separation process remain unclear. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to investigate the crosslinking reaction between trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and the TBDA monomer at the water-organic interface. The simulation results indicate that the diamine monomer has a 20 kJ/mol lower energy barrier for crossing at the interface compared to TMC, leading to the IP process where the diamine monomer first passes through the interface and undergoes polymerization in the organic phase. As the degree of polymerization increases, the resulting PA membrane aggregates at the interface, forming a complete membrane. Moreover, non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) results indicate that solute transport within the membrane primarily follows diffusion kinetics, demonstrating a distinct diffusion mechanism. The selective separation of Cl⁻ and SO₄²⁻ by the PA membrane is mainly due to the formation of stable, larger molecular clusters by SO₄²⁻, whereas Cl⁻ forms smaller clusters. As external pressure increases, SO₄²⁻ clusters remain stable, while Cl⁻ clusters are disrupted and reassemble, resulting in smaller cluster sizes that affect flux. Our research provides a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying PA formation during IP, offering deeper insights into solute separation and transport, which will be critical for the design of future PA membranes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119871"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gradient-wettability tri-layer nanofiber membrane for efficient solar interfacial evaporation","authors":"Hongwei Liu,&nbsp;Shuang Wu,&nbsp;Zhifan Guo,&nbsp;Danyu Zhang,&nbsp;Xiaohui Ju,&nbsp;Weixing Li","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119883","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2026.119883","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Solar-driven seawater desalination has garnered significant attention for mitigating global freshwater scarcity, but its practical application is often hampered by substantial heat loss, inefficient brine transport, and severe performance degradation during long-term operation. To solve these problems, a novel tri-layer electrospun nanofiber membrane (PVDF-MWCNTs-PVP) with gradient wettability is introduced. By utilizing polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a dispersant for multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), a gradient structure was meticulously crafted via multilayer electrospinning, comprising a hydrophobic layer with the water contact angle (WCA) of 147°, a transition layer with WCA ranging from 90° to 120°, and a hydrophilic layer with WCA below 90°. This innovative design enables a sequence of “water adsorption–rapid transportation–efficient evaporation”, effectively reconciling the balance between efficiency and durability. The gradient structure reduced the temperature differential between the membrane and liquid phase surface (ΔT) by 6.6 °C compared to bilayer membranes. In outdoor testing, the interface evaporation flux reached 2.10 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹, while the flux of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) achieved 9.65 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹. The evaporation efficiency under sunlight illumination reached 87.34%, and the flux declined by only 3.32% after 120 h. The developed membrane has great prospects in seawater desalination and wastewater treatment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"624 ","pages":"Article 119883"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}