A Simple Polypyrrole/Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membrane with Hydrophobic and Self-Floating Ability for Solar Water Evaporation
Shenfeng Zhang,
Jun Chen,
Jixin Zheng,
Xin Chen,
Hongbo Xu,
Florian Ion Tiberiu Petrescu,
Liviu Marian Ungureanu,
Ying Li,
Gang Shi
Affiliations
Shenfeng Zhang
The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Jun Chen
The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Jixin Zheng
The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Xin Chen
The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Hongbo Xu
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, Harbin Institute of Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin 150001, China
Florian Ion Tiberiu Petrescu
Department of Mechanisms and Robots Theory, Bucharest Polytechnic University, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Liviu Marian Ungureanu
Department of Mechanisms and Robots Theory, Bucharest Polytechnic University, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Ying Li
The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Gang Shi
The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
The traditional hydrophobic solarevaporator is generally obtained through the modification of alkyl or fluoroalkyl on the photothermal membrane. However, the modified groups can easily be oxidized in the long-term use process, resulting in the poor salt resistance and stability of photothermal membrane. In order to solve this problem, a simple polypyrrole/polyvinylidene fluoride membrane, consisting of an intrinsic hydrophobic support (polyvinylidene fluoride) and a photothermal material (polypyrrole), was fabricated by ultrasonically mixing and immersed precipitation. This photothermal membrane showed good self-floating ability in the process of water evaporation. In order to further improve the photothermal conversion efficiency, a micropyramid structure with antireflective ability was formed on the surface of membrane by template method. The micropyramids can enhance the absorption efficiency of incident light. The water evaporation rate reached 1.42 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun irradiation, and the photothermal conversion efficiency was 88.7%. The hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride ensures that NaCl cannot enter into membrane during the evaporation process of the brine, thus realizing the stability and salt resistance of polypyrrole/polyvinylidene fluoride in 3.5%wt and 10%wt NaCl solution.
