Abstract
Solar steam generation is a promising technology to realize efficient and green desalination with a minimized carbon footprint. Discarded cigarette filters (CFs) cause significant harm to the environment but have good recycling potential for solar steam generation. In this study, an efficient thermally-positioned material (AC-CF), which uses renewable cellulose acetate CFs and an acetylene carbon black (AC) coating as an absorber, was developed for application as a solar steam generator. The AC-CF exhibited superhydrophilic characteristics and extensive solar absorption (approximately 100%). These properties enable the resulting AC-CF to exhibit rapid water transport and a strong photothermal conversion ability, with an outstanding evaporation rate of 1.81 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun illumination. The evaporator can remove most impurities and dye molecules during outdoor operation. Subsequently, the AC-CF evaporator was dissolved and recycled using N, N-dimethylformamide, and the recycling method yielded good results. This method for preparing absorbers reduces manufacturing costs and guides the potential practical application of recycled polymer resources using discarded CFs.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to sincerely thank Shiyanjia Lab (www. shiyanjia.com) for touching up and revising the manuscript, and for the help with experimental characterization.
Funding
Funding was received from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U21A2095, 52203373), and the Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province (No. 2021BAA068).
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W.X., K. L., and D.X. conceived and planned this research. Z.C., Y.L., D.X., and C.G performed the experiments. L.J. contributed to the water transport modeling. D.X. and Z.C. performed the thermal analysis. W.X., Z.C., Y.L., D.X., and C.G. organized the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Gong, H., Chen, Z., Ge, C. et al. Eco-friendly and recyclable evaporator based on discarded cigarette filters for high-efficiency and stable solar desalination. Cellulose 30, 3745–3756 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-023-05115-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-023-05115-w