2D Meshy-Metal Solar Evaporator for Faster Vapor Diffusion and Water Collection

Solar evaporation has attracted great attention regarding renewable energy capture and freshwater production. However, the clean water production is still limited by the heat loss and low evaporation rate of water. Herein, a 2D meshy MoS2/Ti membrane-based evaporator (MTiE) is designed to optimize the vapor diffusion process and realizes almost zero heat loss from evaporator to environment. The 2D meshy-metal structure dramatically reduces vapor-diffusion resistance and improves the effective evaporation area, resulting in lager vapor-concentration gradients and faster water collection rates. MTiE exhibits a high evaporation rate of 6.4 kg m-2 h-1 and a high-yield water rate up to 2.7 kg m-2 h-1 under one sun (1 kW m-2) coupled with ultra-low convection flow rate of 0.2 m s-1. Additionally, the flexible MTiE shows excellent long-term salt-resistant stability for continuous evaporative wastewater disposal. The 2D meshy structure provides a new pathway for the faster vapor diffusion and water collection in solar evaporators.