Multifunctional hydrophilic MXene/Gelatin composite aerogel with vertically aligned channels for efficient sustainable solar water evaporation and Oil/Water separation

Solar-driven water evaporation has emerged as a sustainable approach for water purification and desalination, helping to relieve the long-standing water scarcity issues. However, achieving strong mechanical structure and superior light absorption simultaneously in an evaporator for various realistic conditions in marine environment remains challenging. Here, we prepared a hydrophilic and oleophobic Ti3C2Tx MXene/gelatin (M&G) composite aerogel with vertically aligned channels which are propitious to water transport, light absorption and vapor release for clean water generation. Simultaneously, the composite aerogel has excellent dry compression resis-tance and wet resilience due to the addition of gelatin, which are benefit to resist shear forces caused by water surface fluctuations. Acting as solar evaporator, M&G composite aerogel demonstrates high evaporation rate (1.7 kg m -2h- 1, 1 sun) and preferable wastewater purification abilities. Furthermore, the hydrophilic and oleophobic properties of the composite aerogel is critical to extract water from oil/water mixture to adapt to the application of diverse water environments. Therefore, the designed composite aerogels show great potential for water treatment in a variety of water sources.

Automated summary

A composite aerogel with excellent mechanical structure and light absorption has been developed for water purification and desalination in marine environments.