Interfacial solar steam generation by heat localization is a highly efficient, sustainable way to alleviate water shortage in resource-limited regions. However, most of the interfacial photothermal evaporators demonstrated so far involve non-biodegradable nanoscale materials, which can quickly pose a significant threat to the environment and ecosystems after their disposal. For the first time, we developed a flexible, scalable and, more importantly, completely biodegradable photothermal evaporator for highly efficient solar steam generation.  The bilayered evaporator is comprised of bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) densely loaded with polydopamine (PDA) particles during its growth. The PDA particle size was turned to have a maximum absorption range in the visible and near-infrared regions. The biodegradable foam introduced here exhibits large light absorption and photothermal conversion, heat localization, and efficient water transportation, leading to excellent solar steam generation performance under one sun (an efficiency of ~78%).  The novel material and scalable process demonstrated here can be a sustainable solution to alleviate the global water crisis.

Photothermal water purification membranes containing optically-tuned polydopamine particles embedded in bacterial nanocellulose

255th National Meeting (2018)

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