Gram-scale synthesis of porous three-dimensional carbon nanosheets for high efficiency clean water production

Abstract

Three-dimensional carbon nanosheets (3D-CNS) with excellent photothermal conversion (PTC) efficiency and solar evaporation performance were synthesized via a facile, versatile, and gram-scale co-precipitation carbonization strategy. Here, water-soluble biomass (protein) and inorganic salt (K2SO4) were co-precipitated in organic phase. The co-precipitation was then carbonized. The 3D-CNS constituted of thin, transparent, wrinkled, and interconnected nanosheets was yielded by the removal of soft template. The resulted material displayed an unprecedented PTC efficiency (h = 79.76%) at a power density of 1.5 W cm−2. The carbon-based photothermal membrane based on 3D-CNS was easily obtained by suction filtration, and exhibited excellent evaporation performance (89.55 ± 0.56%).

Keywords

• three-dimensional carbon nanosheets
• biomass source
• co-precipitation-carbonization strategy
• photothermal property
• solar evaporation