DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-12DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118301
Hanjin Jiang , Yanan Guo , Zhiwen Zou , Le Zhao , Zhi Wang , Dong Wang , Xiaoyi Wang , Ling Zhang , Chaoquan Hu
{"title":"Synthesis of layered Co9S8-based composites for high-efficiency rotating evaporation of saturated brine","authors":"Hanjin Jiang , Yanan Guo , Zhiwen Zou , Le Zhao , Zhi Wang , Dong Wang , Xiaoyi Wang , Ling Zhang , Chaoquan Hu","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118301","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118301","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Harvesting freshwater via solar interfacial evaporation is a promising strategy with net-zero emissions. To achieve long-term stable freshwater acquisition, researchers have developed dynamic solar-driven water evaporators. However, these evaporators exhibit limited evaporation rates due to the insufficient photothermal conversion properties of the materials used. In this study, we prepared Co<sub>9</sub>S<sub>8</sub>/CoNiO<sub>2</sub>/Au composite materials through in-situ topological transformation, thereby improving the effect of the heterogeneous crystal lattice mismatch on electron transport. By embedding these materials into a spherical polyurethane sponge, we developed a new type of self-rotating evaporator with a solar full-spectrum absorbance of 95.84 %. The evaporator stably exhibited an evaporation rate of 3.10 kg m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> within 240 h in saturated brine. The present work provides insights into the preparation of photothermal composites and the development of high-efficiency stable solar evaporators.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118301"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658829","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}
DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-12DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118300
Tingting Ma , Zixuan Jin , Zhiqian Jia , Wenjuan Peng
{"title":"Synthesis of doped titanium-based lithium adsorbents with excellent stability and adsorption performance by solid state reactions","authors":"Tingting Ma , Zixuan Jin , Zhiqian Jia , Wenjuan Peng","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Titanium-based lithium-ion sieves (LTO) are often employed for lithium recovery from solutions due to their high adsorption uptake. To further reduce the Ti dissolution loss rate and enhance the adsorption performance of LTO, metal-doping was conducted using solid-state reactions in this work, and the effects of incorporated metal elements and doping amounts were investigated. The results indicated that, the doping of 5 % tungsten (W), zirconium (Zr) or cerium (Ce) significantly reduces the titanium dissolution rate from 1.52 % (without doping) to 0.77 %, 1.1 %, and 1.17 % respectively, while the doping of iron (Fe) and molybdenum (Mo) increases the Ti dissolution rate. Simultaneously, the dissolution rates of W, Zr, and Ce (0.15 %, 0.27 %, and 0.66 %) are also significantly lower than those of Fe and Mo (14 % and 24 %). In addition to the record-breaking reduction in the titanium dissolution rate, W doping also substantially enhances the saturated adsorption capacity of lithium to 48 mg g<sup>−1</sup> (at 30 °C), 1.37 times that of the undoped LTO (35 mg g<sup>−1</sup>), demonstrating great potential for lithium recovery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118300"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658826","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}
DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-09DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118296
Mennatallah H. Farag, S.A. El-Hakam, Awad I. Ahmed, Amr Awad Ibrahim, Doaa A. Kospa
{"title":"Enhanced solar-to-steam conversion efficiency using CuO-polyaniline yolk-shell structures","authors":"Mennatallah H. Farag, S.A. El-Hakam, Awad I. Ahmed, Amr Awad Ibrahim, Doaa A. Kospa","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118296","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118296","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Herein, the low-cost copper oxide was encapsulated in the polyaniline (PANI) structure forming a yolk-shell (YS) platform which can provide a large surface area and sufficient active sites and enhance light scattering in its hollow space or voids, both of which can significantly improve the near-full usage of solar energy. The fabrication of the YS structure was assisted with a soft template (hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) which the removed by the acidic etching process producing uniform voids through the composite structure. Moreover, the etching process using an acidic medium resulted in the formation of the PANI emeraldine salt which is beneficial for the salt-resistant properties of the composite. The encapsulated CuO@void@Es-PANI showed an outstanding rate of water evaporation of 1.91 kg m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> and a corresponding high Solar-to-Steam conversion efficiency of 98.9 % under the irradiation of 1 sun compared to that of the normal mixed CuO/PANI (1.53 kg m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> and 81.3 %). Meanwhile, the same high evaporation flux was approximately obtained after a continuous 72 h even in high saline water or contaminated seawater.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118296"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658847","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}
DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-09DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118279
Yunong Xie, Jinbu Su, Chenrui Ji, Yuyi Xu, Xuli Lin, Chenyi Shi, Weixin Du, Xinyu Dong, Chengbing Wang
{"title":"A 3D Janus-like structure evaporator based on capillary force promoting efficient solar steam generation","authors":"Yunong Xie, Jinbu Su, Chenrui Ji, Yuyi Xu, Xuli Lin, Chenyi Shi, Weixin Du, Xinyu Dong, Chengbing Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118279","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118279","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The interface of evaporation driven by solar energy has received widespread attention as a promising seawater desalination technology to solve the crisis of freshwater shortage. However, the extensive precipitation of salt during seawater desalination process limits the application of solar evaporators. Herein, a method is proposed to obtain a three-dimensional (3D) evaporator with Janus structure by impregnating wood flowers (WFs) with ink. The advantage of the evaporator with Janus structure is that it can effectively suppress salt precipitation during the evaporation process. From the scanned electronic image, it can be seen that some flocculent substances inside the evaporator have been thoroughly cleaned, preserving the complete pore structure. From the evaporation tests under different light intensities, it can be seen that the optimal evaporation rate occurs at a specific solar intensity, as its surface temperature reaches the temperature required for optimal evaporation. The distribution of salt particles in the evaporator after evaporation is due to the large temperature difference between the top and bottom of the evaporator, resulting in different hydrophilic effects at the top and bottom, ultimately achieving a Janus-like effect. Salt particles are evenly distributed in strips on both sides in the middle. The advantage of this distribution is that it preserves as much evaporation area as possible, thereby achieving stable and effective evaporation. This experiment provides some ideas for the development of 3D Janus evaporators and the formation principle of Janus structures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118279"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658807","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}
DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-09DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118295
Shang Fang , Kecheng Guan , Aiwen Zhang , Liheng Dai , Siyu Zhou , Wenming Fu , Mengyang Hu , Ping Xu , Pengfei Zhang , Zhan Li , Zhaohuan Mai , Hideto Matsuyama
{"title":"Multifunctional role of surfactant in fabricating polyamide nanofiltration membranes for Li+/Mg2+ separation","authors":"Shang Fang , Kecheng Guan , Aiwen Zhang , Liheng Dai , Siyu Zhou , Wenming Fu , Mengyang Hu , Ping Xu , Pengfei Zhang , Zhan Li , Zhaohuan Mai , Hideto Matsuyama","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118295","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118295","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Extracting Lithium from salt-lake brines can effectively alleviate global lithium scarcity. Separating the co-existing Mg<sup>2+</sup> ions from Li<sup>+</sup> ions in the brines is essential. While thin-film composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membrane show potential for this separation, commercial NF membranes with negatively charged surfaces fail to meet the high rejection requirement for Mg<sup>2+</sup> ions due to the electrostatic attractions between membranes and cations. Positively charged NF membranes fabricated by interfacial polymerization (IP) between aqueous phase polyethylenimine (PEI) and hexane phase trimesoyl chloride (TMC) have shown promise for Li<sup>+</sup>/Mg<sup>2+</sup> separation. However, lithium extraction efficiency is greatly limited by the relatively low permeance and high lithium rejection of the membrane caused by an excessively cross-linked structure. Therefore, optimizing the pore size while maintaining the positive charge of PEI/TMC-based TFC membranes is necessary. We propose adding anionic surfactants to the aqueous PEI solution to modulate PEI/TMC-based NF membrane formation. Surfactants control PEI diffusion in IP through their interactions and improve reaction uniformity at the water-hexane interface. This results in a narrow pore size distribution of the PA network. In this study, three sulfate surfactants with varying alkyl chain lengths were used to control membrane formation. Results showed that sodium n-decyl sulfate (SDES), the shortest sulfate surfactant, improved membrane performance most effectively. The optimized membrane exhibited a crumpled surface and relatively loose pore structure with narrow pore size distribution. It demonstrated a pure water permanence of 5.65 L m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> bar<sup>−1</sup>, high MgCl<sub>2</sub> rejection of 92.6 %, and low LiCl rejection of 21.5 %. After filtering a Mg<sup>2+</sup> and Li<sup>+</sup> binary mixture solution, the Mg<sup>2+</sup>/Li<sup>+</sup> ratio decreased significantly from 40 (feed) to 3.08 (permeate). This study provides an efficient strategy for preparing PEI/TMC-based NF membranes with favorable Li<sup>+</sup>/Mg<sup>2+</sup> separation performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118295"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658845","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}
DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-08DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118294
Guangyong Zeng , Xia Zheng , Peng Wang , Xi Chen , Hongshan Wang , Yuan Xiang , Jianquan Luo , Yu-Hsuan Chiao , Shengyan Pu
{"title":"High-performance membranes based on two-dimensional materials for removing emerging contaminants from water systems: Progress and challenges","authors":"Guangyong Zeng , Xia Zheng , Peng Wang , Xi Chen , Hongshan Wang , Yuan Xiang , Jianquan Luo , Yu-Hsuan Chiao , Shengyan Pu","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118294","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118294","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Emerging contaminants (ECs) pose significant environmental risks. They also present health hazards due to their persistence and resistance to degradation. Membrane separation has emerged as a promising technique for ECs removal, offering high precision and minimal secondary pollution. However, conventional membranes face challenges like selectivity-permeability trade-offs and fouling, limiting their effectiveness. Recent advancements involve incorporating two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene oxide (GO) and MXene into polymer membranes through layer-by-layer stacking or as additives to enhance the overall performance. While existing reviews generally cover the importance of membrane technologies and the role of 2D materials, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis focusing on the specific challenges and the innovative integration of 2D materials to address these challenges. This review discusses various methods of membrane modification using typical 2D materials, along with the latest research findings on novel composite membranes for the separation and degradation of different types of ECs in wastewater. Furthermore, it summarizes the removal mechanisms of these innovative membranes for ECs, providing valuable insights for the future development of high-performance membranes based on 2D materials.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118294"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658806","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}
DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-08DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118293
Xiang Ma , Jian Wang , Zhaoyuan Zhu , Ning Wang , Ce Wang , Guangdi Nie
{"title":"A two-pronged strategy to boost the capacitive deionization performance of nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofiber membranes","authors":"Xiang Ma , Jian Wang , Zhaoyuan Zhu , Ning Wang , Ce Wang , Guangdi Nie","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118293","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118293","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Carbon-based capacitive deionization (CDI) systems are universally subject to the limited desalination capacity, due to the electrosorption characteristics and undesirable pore structures. Herein, a two-pronged strategy is proposed to boost the desalination performance of the electrospun carbon nanofibers (CNFs), where silicalite-1 nanoparticles as the internal porogen create mesopores and macropores, and layered zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-L) leaves as the external carbon source provide micropores and mesopores. This combination results in the large surface area, well-developed graded pore structure, and increased nitrogen content of the core-shell polyacrylonitrile/silicalite-1@ZIF-L-derived CNFs (defined as PCNFs-SZ) electrode, which delivers a superior specific capacitance of 145.4 F g<sup>−1</sup> in a neutral electrolyte. The symmetric CDI cell assembled by the self-supporting PCNFs-SZ membrane electrodes holds a prominent desalination capacity of 37.09 mg g<sup>−1</sup> and a rapid salt removal rate of 10.36 mg g<sup>−1</sup> min<sup>−1</sup> at 1.2 V (initial NaCl concentration: 500 mg L<sup>−1</sup>), and demonstrates significant potential for real-world applications in the desalination and purification of reclaimed water. Furthermore, theory calculations confirm the enhanced Na<sup>+</sup>-capture capability of PCNFs-SZ. The present work highlights an effective and viable approach to enhance the desalination performance of carbon-based CDI cells.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118293"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658632","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}
DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-07DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118282
Maryam Jalili Marand, Shahram Mehdipour-Ataei, Samal Babanzadeh
{"title":"Structure-performance relationship in tailored poly(amide-sulfone) membranes for desalination","authors":"Maryam Jalili Marand, Shahram Mehdipour-Ataei, Samal Babanzadeh","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118282","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118282","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Poly(amide-sulfone)s were considered the missing link for water desalination membranes, owing to their exceptional properties resulting from the synergism effects of two amide and sulfone structures. To achieve this, a sulfone-based diamine was first synthesized by reacting 4,4′-dichlorodiphenyl sulfone with 3-aminophenol. Subsequently, alternative copolymers of poly(amide-sulfone) were prepared via polycondensation reactions of the synthesized diamine monomer and various diacid chlorides including adipoyl dichloride, isophthaloyl dichloride, and terephthaloyl dichloride. The chemical structures were approved using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Porous membranes of the polymers as substrates were prepared by solution casting and phase-inversion method. To form thin film composite membranes, a thin polyamide layer was created through interfacial polymerization on the top surface of prepared substrates using <em>m</em>-phenylenediamine and trimesoyl chloride. After characterization, the performance of all membranes was assessed by evaluating pure water flux, NaCl rejection, and flux recovery ratio using a cross-flow filtration system. The impact of the amide group within the poly(amide-sulfone) substrate structure on thin-film efficiency was explored. Results, revealed that the structure significantly influenced membrane performance. Specifically, the highest pure water flux was 549.50 L.m<sup>−2</sup>.h<sup>−1</sup>. Also, NaCl rejection of 98.27 % and flux recovery ratio of 94.21 % were observed among them at pressure of 10 bar. This study provided valuable insights for developing novel poly(amide-sulfone) membranes tailored for desalination applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118282"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658731","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":"Simulation investigation on volumetric mixing of the rotary ERD unit and array in the SWRO desalination system","authors":"Hongshan Xu, Junqi Wang, Xinmiao Hou, Yudong Wu, Xiaobo Feng, Yuhao Yan, Yue Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118280","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118280","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In SWRO desalination system, both low volumetric mixing and high flow capacity of rotary ERD unit is the bottleneck problem at present. Here, a new motor-driven rotary ERD (MD-RERD) is proposed with a large length-diameter ratio rotor and high flow capacity of 110 m<sup>3</sup>/h. When the length-diameter ratio increases from 14.5 to 18.5 based on unchanged rotor channel diameter, the volumetric mixing of MD-RERD at rotating speed (140 rpm) decreases from 5.503 % to 1.728 % by CFD simulation, which is much lower than that of commercial rotary ERD. Moreover, the MD-RERD shows high energy recovery efficiency of 98.2 %. To further evaluate the mixing performance, an array model composed of 5 MD-RERD units with the flow capacity of 550 m<sup>3</sup>/h is constructed. The volumetric mixing of the array is 2.339 % under traditional ZZ-array, which is 35.4 % more than that of the single unit due to poor matching degree of volume flowrate between high-pressure route and low-pressure route. Moreover, when the rotor rotates anticlockwise at 140 rpm, the high-pressure route with U-type shows much higher uniformity of flow distribution than Z-type, which is close to that of low-pressure route with Z-type. Therefore, the Z-type is changed to U-type in high-pressure route to construct the UZ-array. Consequently, the matching degree of volume flowrate between the two routes increases, and the volumetric mixing of the array decreases to 1.968 %, which is only 13.9 % more than that of the single unit. It is beneficial to further improve the comprehensive efficiency of the ERD and thus significantly reduce the energy consumption in SWRO desalination system compared to the commercial ERD with a common volumetric mixing of 6 %.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118280"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658716","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}
DesalinationPub Date : 2024-11-06DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.118283
Xin Zhang , Shanshan Yang , Huanzhi Zhang , Huan Liu , Xiaodong Wang
{"title":"Sustainable solar-powered seawater desalination enabled by phosphorene-decorated watermelon-like phase-change microcapsules","authors":"Xin Zhang , Shanshan Yang , Huanzhi Zhang , Huan Liu , Xiaodong Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118283","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.desal.2024.118283","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Solar-powered interfacial evaporation is considered as an emerging innovative technology for seawater desalination; however, it suffers from insufficient evaporation efficiency under intermittent solar irradiation. Aiming at realizing sustainable solar-powered seawater desalination for clean water production, we have designed a new type of watermelon-like phase-change microcapsules as a photothermal absorbent material for solar interfacial evaporators. This type of phase-change microcapsules was prepared through rational layer-by-layer microencapsulation with a ZrO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticle-containing <em>n</em>-docosane core as a phase-change material (PCM) for solar photothermal harvest and prompt thermal response, a ZrO<sub>2</sub> shell for the leakage prevention of the molten <em>n</em>-docosane core, and a polydopamine coating layer together with its surface-decorated phosphorene nanoflakes for high-efficient sunlight absorption and fast water transportation. The resultant microcapsules are featured by a watermelon-like microstructure as confirmed by transmission electron and scanning electron microscopy. They also exhibit a high light absorption efficiency of 84.95 %, a high latent heat capacity of 146.2 J g<sup>−1</sup>, and good wettability. Equipped with the watermelon-like phase-change microcapsules, the developed solar interfacial evaporator obtained an evaporation rate of 3.09 kg m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> under one-sun illumination for seawater desalination. The PCM core within the microcapsules can store solar photothermal energy as latent heat under sufficient solar irradiation and then release it under evaporation conditions without sunlight illumination, thus enhancing the water evaporation efficiency. This enables the developed evaporator to increase its total evaporation mass by 31.5 % on a cloudy day in comparison with the conversional solar evaporator without a PCM, indicating a remarkable enhancement in the evaporation performance under intermittent solar irradiation. The developed solar interfacial evaporator exhibits great potential for application in sustainable solar-powered seawater desalination.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":299,"journal":{"name":"Desalination","volume":"594 ","pages":"Article 118283"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658639","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}