A Biomass Porous Carbon with Robust Salt Resistance Capacity for Continuously Efficient Solar-Driven Interfacial Desalination
Solar-driven vapor generation (SDVG) emerges as a promising solution to the global freshwater crisis; yet, the scalable applications in seawater desalination are significantly hindered by the salt deposition. Herein, we report a self-floating biomass porous carbon with robust salt resistance derived from a simple, one-step carbonization of the Elymus nutans. The material features a natural hierarchical pore structure and superhydrophilicity, which work synergistically to ensure a rapid water supply and effectively prevent salt crystallization at the evaporation interface. Under 1 sun illumination (1 kW m<sup>-2</sup>), the biomass-derived carbon achieves a high evaporation rate of 1.41 kg m<sup>-2</sup> h<sup>-1</sup> with a solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency of 88.9%. More importantly, it demonstrates exceptional stability, maintaining stable evaporation in 3.5 wt% and 15 wt% NaCl solutions for over 12 h, with recorded rates of 1.33 and 1.16 kg m<sup>-2</sup> h<sup>-1</sup>, respectively. The real seawater sample desalinating results verified the biomass-porous-carbon-realized high-efficient and robust solar-driven interfacial desalination. This work presents a sustainable, cost-effective, and salt-resistant material platform, offering a practical pathway for scalable solar desalination.
Authors
- Xiaokun Wen
- Shuai Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9909-0664)
- Pingping Liang
- Wencui Xiu
Institutions
- Electric Power University (VN)
- Northeast Electric Power University (CN)
- Qingdao Binhai University (CN)
- Jilin Electric Power Research Institute (China) (CN)
- Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Materials
- Published
- 2026-03-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19061172
- Primary Topic
- Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00