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Tailoring core@shell structure of Cu2−xSe@PDAs for synergistic solar-driven water evaporation

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Abstract

Solar-driven water evaporation, a promising method to obtain freshwater resources, has drawn intensive attention recent years due to the abundance of solar energy and scarcity of clean water. Here, we introduce a robust strategy to obtain a series of polydopamine-modified Cu2−xSe nano-composites (Cu2−xSe@PDAs) with core@shell structure, which has strong absorption in solar spectrum and outstanding photothermal conversion efficiency for freshwater production. Temperature of the obtained Cu2−xSe@PDA30 aqueous solution could increase from 19.4 to 70.6 °C in 5 min under the irradiation of 980-nm NIR laser with the power density of 0.002 kW·cm−2. Under 0.5 simulated sunlight irradiation, water evaporation rates were as high as 3.36 kg·m−2·h−1 when using the Cu2−xSe@PDA30 for desalination, indicating excellent evaporation efficiency under weak light. Moreover, the obtained Cu2−xSe@PDA30 can also apply to wastewater purification and the evaporation rate could reach 2.71 kg·m−2·h−1 under an irradiation of simulated sunlight with intensity of 1 kW·m−2. These results provided new insight into solar desalination and wastewater treatment using nanoscale semiconductor materials.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52102346 and 52002119), the State Key R & D Program (No. 2021YFB3400800), the Startup Funds from the Henan University of Science and Technology (13480095, 13480096, 13554031 and 13554032).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471023, China

    Haoyan Cheng, Wanting Xia, Zhipeng Zhao, Wenjing Wang, Kexing Song, Haitao Li, Chu Cheng & Hao Hu

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Nonferrous Metals, Henan province, Luoyang, 471023, China

    Kexing Song & Hao Hu

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  1. Haoyan Cheng
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  7. Chu Cheng
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Correspondence to Hao Hu.

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Cheng, H., Xia, W., Zhao, Z. et al. Tailoring core@shell structure of Cu2−xSe@PDAs for synergistic solar-driven water evaporation. J Mater Sci 57, 11725–11734 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07353-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07353-y