Three-Dimensional Porous Molybdenum Disulfide Evaporator Aerogel for Highly Effective Solar Desalination: The Influence of the Structure of Three-Dimensional Evaporator on Evaporation Performance

The design of a solar-driven interfacial evaporator applied to the process of seawater desalination has attracted great attention due to sustainable renewable solar energy. The underlying mechanisms linking the evaporator structure to its functional performance have yet to be comprehensively established. In this study, we prepared a three-dimensional (3D) porous structured molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) evaporator aerogel by using MoS₂ nanosheets as photothermal materials and polyacrylamide hydrogel as immobilization carriers. And MoS₂ evaporator aerogel was systematically characterized using various methods. We detailly investigated the influence of the structure characteristics (i.e., the vertical pore channels, the LAR value (which refers to the ratio of light area to effective evaporation area) and volume size) of the 3D evaporators on the evaporation rate and salt resistance performance. The results implied that the MoS₂ evaporator aerogel could make full use of the environment energy. Smaller LAR and volume could improve the evaporation performance of the evaporator. In 3.5 wt % salt water, MoS₂ evaporator aerogel was evaporated at the rate of 4.07 kg·m^-2·h^-1 and the photothermal conversion efficiency was 91.84%, without salt crystals produced on its surface. These findings will be helpful to get a deeper understanding of the correlation between the structural characteristics of an evaporator and its evaporation performance for the design of the solar-driven interfacial evaporator applied to the process of seawater desalination.