Novel\nRamie Fabric-Based Draping Evaporator\nfor Tunable Water Supply and Highly Efficient Solar Desalination

Abstract

Interfacial solar-driven evaporation is a promising path\nto address the scarcity of freshwater. Lots of efforts have been made\nto develop highly efficient photothermal materials and optimize operational\nefficiency. However, the designed solar evaporator tends to directly\ncontact with seawater, leading to inevitable parasitic heat loss and\nthe total suppression of evaporation of the backside. Here, we show\na novel draping fabric system by separating the evaporation interface\nfrom bulk water. The evaporation area was exposed to air with enhanced\nnatural convection and double-side evaporation. The draping fabric\nwas prepared by coating the mixture of carbon black (CB) and cross-linked\nsodium alginate (SA) on ramie fabric (CSRF). The draping CSRF realized\nan evaporation rate of 1.81 kg m^–2 h^–1 and efficiency of 96.6% under 1 sun illumination (1 kW m^–2). In addition, by changing the yarn fineness of the fabric, a tunable\nwater supply can be realized to optimize the energy distribution.\nThis work provides a new strategy to design and optimize the solar\nevaporation system, exhibiting great potential in real-world applications.