Multifunctional CuO Nanowire Mesh for Highly Efficient Solar Evaporation and Water Purification

Pure water production by solar distillation under no light concentration is attracting ever greater attention in the rural area with electricity limit due to its constant energy input. Meanwhile, the polluted raw water in these areas also lacks effective decontamination treatment. Rather than relying on external steps for decontamination process, photothermal materials with pollutant removal ability would have better water cleaning performance. Here, we designed a multifunctional photothermal material based on a copper mesh with abundant CuO nanowires. This CuO nanowire mesh exhibited a high solar absorption of 93% and superhydrophilicity for water transport, contributing to a high solar vapor efficiency of 84.4% under one sun illumination. Besides, the CuO nanowires possessed a great catalytic ability for the degradation of contaminants in raw water. Moreover, the diffusion inhibition test showed a clear antimicrobial effect of the CuO nanowire mesh on the bacteria. Hence, the as-prepared multifunctional CuO nanowire mesh allows for the incorporation of solar evaporation, pollutant degradation, and antibacterial action, which holds great application potential in the pure water production in solar distillation.