Preparation of Membrane Evaporators and Solar Interfacial Water Evaporation Performance Study

Abstract

Abstract Membrane evaporators are widely used in solar interfacial water evaporation due to their low cost and convenient construction. However, they generally suffer from issues such as low evaporation rate, poor light absorption and temperature rise capacity, and weak salt resistance during evaporation in seawater. To address these issues, this study conducted ultrasonic treatment on membranes from medical absorbent cotton (AC) using ethanol as the medium for the evaporator. The membranes were coated with C and Fe elements using the impregnation metho and enriched with Ti elements using the in situ growth method. Then, the evaporators containing different elements were tested for photothermal water evaporation, surface temperature rise capacity under illumination, and salt resistance for seawater desalination. The results showed that different elements affect the weight loss curve, evaporation rate, and evaporation efficiency of the samples. The addition of Fe element on the basis of a C element coating can optimize the evaporation capacity of the sample, achieving an evaporation rate of 1.44 kg·m–2 under simulated 1 sun pure water conditions. The incorporation of Ti element effectively enhances the salt resistance of the membrane.