Breath-Figure Self-Assembled Low-Cost Janus Fabrics for Highly Efficient and Stable Solar Desalination

摘要

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation materials for seawater desalinationand wastewater treatment have attracted extensive research interest inrecent years. Nevertheless, salt accumulation, costly materials, and complexpreparation processes greatly hinder the practical application of solarsteam generation. Herein, with low-cost materials such as carbon black (CB),polystyrene-b-polybutadiene-b-polystyrene (SBS), and commercial cottonfabric, the CB@SBS/cotton fabric Janus evaporator is fabricated via a breathfigure template (BFT) method for scalable, long-term, and stable solar-driveninterfacial desalination. The BFT is a simple yet efficient self-assemblymethod that endows the hydrophobic surface of CB@SBS/cotton fabric witha porous structure for high light absorption (≈95.5%) and steam escape. Asa result, the CB@SBS/cotton fabric Janus evaporator can achieve a waterevaporation rate of 1.37 kg m~（–2） h~（–1） and conversion efficiency of 91.3% evenin a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution, as well as stably cycling over 15 times withoutsalt accumulation (each cycle: 8 h for illumination and 16 h for rest). Thework demonstrates an effective strategy for achieving high-performance solarsteam generation and superior salt rejection capability, which can be potentiallyutilized in seawater desalination, sterilization, and disinfection.