Robust PEDOT:PSS-based hydrogel for highly efficient interfacial solar water purification

Solar water purification has been attracting considerable attention due to its promising desalination and purification applications to alleviate water scarcity and pollution. However, despite recent rapid progress, rational design and development of robust and highly efficient interfacial photothermal materials sufficing for large scale real usage is still a critical challenge to the science and technology of this field. Herein, we develop a mechanically robust nanocomposite hydrogel with intriguing evaporation performance by simple blending and cross-linking of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) nanofibrils and poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) viscous solution. As-prepared PEDOT:PSS-PVA hydrogel exhibits an excellent light absorption ratio of similar to 99.7% in a wide wavelength range of 250 similar to 2500 nm and displays unprecedented high energy efficiency of similar to 98.0% with a fast evaporation rate of similar to 2.84 kg m(-2) h(-1) under one sun irradiation. A 60-day continuous test simulating the real seawater evaporation environment shows superior long-term stability of such hydrogel with an average energy efficiency of similar to 93.3%. To harness these advantageous properties, we further demonstrate the scalable hydrogel production and fabricate a solar water evaporator equipment for seawater desalination and wastewater purification, from which the acquired water can meet the drinking requirements set by the World Health Organization.

Automated summary

The article introduces a mechanically robust nanocomposite hydrogel with excellent evaporation performance and demonstrates its potential applications in seawater desalination and wastewater purification.