【159 Advanced Functional Materials】All-in-one carbon foam evaporators for efficient co-generation of freshwater and electricity
作者：Guixin Hu, Huajian Liu, Kuankuan Liu, Huiyue Wang, Xueying Wen, Lijie Liu, Yan She, Lingling Feng,
關鍵字：waste polyester, Carbon foam
論文來源：期刊
具體來源：Advanced Functional Materials
發表時間：2025年
Guixin Hu, Huajian Liu, Kuankuan Liu, Huiyue Wang, Xueying Wen, Lijie Liu, Yan She, Lingling Feng, Ran Niu*, Jiang Gong*
All-in-one carbon foam evaporators for efficient co-generation of freshwater and electricity
Advanced Functional Materials (2025) Accept. (IF2024 = 18.5)
Combining interfacial solar steam evaporation with power generation to produce freshwater and electricity is an effective approach to alleviating freshwater scarcity and energy crises. However, constructing low-cost, efficient integrated evaporator-generator devices remains challenging, and the synergistic mechanism underlying evaporation-power co-generation is not yet well understood. Herein, we design low-cost carbon foam-based bifunctional evaporators that effectively achieve freshwater and electricity co-generation. Carbon foam is obtained from waste polyester using a ball-milling-assisted carbonization strategy. The bifunctional evaporator demonstrates excellent water transport, outstanding sunlight absorption, and low evaporation enthalpy. It achieves an ultra-high evaporation rate of 3.03 kg m-2 h-1 with the conversion efficiency of 99.4%. Additionally, it exhibits continuous high voltage (0.33 V) and current output (14.4 μA), surpassing the performance of state-of-the-art carbon materials-based evaporators/generators. The outcome of molecular dynamics simulations demonstrates that the stronger interaction of surface functional groups in carbon foam with Na+ than Cl- results in the formation of flow potential, when exposed to sunlight, further insights into the synergistic mechanism of power generation. This study expands a new path for sustainable electricity and freshwater co-production by collecting natural energy using single, low-cost, carbon foam-based functional evaporator devices.