An arch-shape wood evaporator decorated by metal-organic framework for solar interface evaporation

To achieve sustainable desalination and water purification, solar interface evaporation technology is an effective means due to its high energy efficiency. Reasonable photothermal conversion materials and surface design are crucial for the interfacial solar evaporation process. How to design water transport routes and thermal insulating layers simultaneously is one of the major challenges to solar interface evaporation technology today. Herein, this work reports an arch-shaped wood evaporator (pine@carbon black (CB)-metal-organic framework-801 (MOF-801)-36%) for efficient, fast and continuous interfacial solar evaporation, which is composed of an arch-shaped wood substrate, MOF-801, and CB as a light absorption layer. The arch-shaped structure has a double-sided evaporation effect, which has a synergistic effect on augmenting solar evaporation efficiency. In addition, the in-situ growth of MOF-801 in pretreated wood microchannels renders the wood evaporator a significant function of reducing the equivalent enthalpy of evaporation due to the reduction of the hydrogen bonding density of water molecules as they pass through the wood channels. The best evaporation rate of the arch-shaped wood evaporator can reach 2.535 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹, and the efficiency reaches 93.7% under the irradiation of 1 sun illumination. Notably, it could be used for desalination and wastewater treatment to collect fresh water that meets drinking requirements set by the World Health Organization (WHO). This integrated evaporator provides an efficient way for commercial portable photothermal conversion and new ideas for advanced solar-driven water treatment technology.