title: Floatable, Self-Cleaning, and Carbon-Black-Based Superhydrophobic Gauze for the Solar Evaporation Enhancement at the Air-Water Interface.
abstract: Efficient solar evaporation plays an indispensable role in nature as well as the industry process. However, the traditional evaporation process depends on the total temperature increase of bulk water. Recently, localized heating at the air-water interface has been demonstrated as a potential strategy for the improvement of solar evaporation. Here, we show that the carbon-black-based superhydrophobic gauze was able to float on the surface of water and selectively heat the surface water under irradiation, resulting in an enhanced evaporation rate. The fabrication process of the superhydrophobic black gauze was low-cost, scalable, and easy-to-prepare. Control experiments were conducted under different light intensities, and the results proved that the floating black gauze achieved an evaporation rate 2-3 times higher than that of the traditional process. A higher temperature of the surface water was observed in the floating gauze group, revealing a main reason for the evaporation enhancement. Furthermore, the self-cleaning ability of the superhydrophobic black gauze enabled a convenient recycling and reusing process toward practical application. The present material may open a new avenue for application of the superhydrophobic substrate and meet extensive requirements in the fields related to solar evaporation.
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yiming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jingwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Moyuan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing, P. R. China.|‡Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
keywords: air−water interface; carbon black nanoparticle; self-cleaning; solar evaporation; superhydrophobic gauze