Scalable Core-Sheath Yarn for Boosting Solar Interfacial Desalination Through Engineering Controllable Water Supply

Xingfang Xiao; Luqi Pan; Tao Chen; Manyu Wang; Lipei Ren; Bei Chen; Yingao Wang; Qian Zhang; Weilin Xu

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2023.03.015

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Engineering ›› 2023, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (11) : 153-160. DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2023.03.015

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Scalable Core-Sheath Yarn for Boosting Solar Interfacial Desalination Through Engineering Controllable Water Supply

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Highlights

• Core-sheath photothermal yarns were fabricated via scalable two-dimensional braiding.

• Water transport could be controlled through adjusting the number of the core fiber.

• The optimized device exhibited excellent and stable desalination simultaneously.

• Industrial weaving methods ensure the device scalable fabrication.

Abstract

Tailoring water supply to achieve confined heating has proven to be an effective strategy for boosting solar interfacial evaporation rates. However, because of salt clogging during desalination, a critical point of constriction occurs when controlling the water rate for confined heating. In this study, we demonstrate a facile and scalable weaving technique for fabricating core-sheath photothermal yarns that facilitate controlled water supply for stable and efficient interfacial solar desalination. The core-sheath yarn comprises modal fibers as the core and carbon fibers as the sheaths. Because of the core-sheath design, remarkable liquid pumping can be enabled in the carbon fiber bundle of the dispersed super-hydrophilic modal fibers. Our woven fabrics absorb a high proportion (92%) of the electromagnetic radiation in the solar spectrum because of the weaving structure and the carbon fiber sheath. Under one-sun (1 kW·m⁻²) illumination, our woven fabric device can achieve the highest evaporation rate (of 2.12 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ with energy conversion efficiency: 93.7%) by regulating the number of core-sheath yarns. Practical application tests demonstrate that our device can maintain high and stable desalination performance in a 5 wt% NaCl solution.

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Keywords

Interfacial solar desalination / Photothermal yarn / Tunable water supply / Core-sheath yarn / Salt clogging

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Xingfang Xiao, Luqi Pan, Tao Chen, Manyu Wang, Lipei Ren, Bei Chen, Yingao Wang, Qian Zhang, Weilin Xu. Scalable Core-Sheath Yarn for Boosting Solar Interfacial Desalination Through Engineering Controllable Water Supply. Engineering, 2023, 30(11): 153‒160 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2023.03.015

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Funding

the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52103064, U21A2095); the Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province(2021BAA068); National Local Joint Laboratory for Advanced Textile Processing and Clean Production(FX2022001)