A novel reduced graphene oxide based absorber for augmenting the water yield and thermal performance of solar desalination unit

The absorber plate of a single basin solar still (SS) is coated by black paint doped with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheet having a mass fraction of 4-12 wt%, to augment the water yield. The RGO was prepared through hydrothermal treatment to have a specific surface area and mean pore diameter of 167.72 m(2).g(-1) and 22 nm, respectively. The utilization of 12 wt% RGO doped with black paint-coated absorber enhances the water and absorber temperature by 14.7 and 15.7%, respectively, as compared to only black paint-coated absorber. The accumulated water yield of the SS with (12 wt%) and without the RGO coating was found to be 5.59 and 3.96 L/m(2)/day, respectively. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that using 12 wt% RGO doped with black paint-coated absorber significantly increased the water yield and absorber temperature of a single basin solar still. Compared to only using black paint-coated absorber, the SS with RGO coating had higher water yield. The application of RGO improved the performance of the SS.