3D printed supporter combined with dopamine coated hydrogel-based carbon for highly efficient and self-floating solar steam generator

Department of Energy Engineering (Energy Engineering)Research on solar desalination especially can make easily and portable device, which is called solar still has been researched in various ways. Also, the 3D printer has already been commercialized in various fields. In this study, we developed a supporter that created in a simple way by using the 3D printer which is categorized in the DLP method, not only helps self-floating but also assists the steam generation by capillary force. Without any materials, this supporter can achieve a high mass change of ~1.083 kg/m2h under one sun illumination. As a photo-absorber, we developed microporous material, hydrogel-based carbon (HBC), which has outstanding solar absorption of 98% between 250-2500 nm, is produced by the CVD method. In addition, the HBC???s hydrophobic property can prevent salt rejection that makes good stability in the solar desalination process which can extremely increase the sustainable performance. Finally, polydopamine coating treatment applies to commercial GF/C membrane to achieve surface immobilization, combined with HBC by the vacuum filtration process. This solar still device is a combination of HBC on the top layer, polydopamine coated GF/C membrane located at beneath it, and 3D printed supported on the bottom. It exhibits average evaporation rates of ~1.728kg/m2h with an excellent solar conversion efficiency of up to 89% under 1 sun illumination also shows high performance in terms of sustainability. With its unique hydrophobic porous black material (HBC) assembled with self-floating 3d printed supporter is an efficient and sustainable solar vapor generator which can also serve as high-salinity brine desalination.clos