Solar-driven evaporation is a promising technology with many potential applications including desalination, power generation, purification, sterilization, and phase separation. Recently, much research has been directed toward increasing solar-driven evaporation efficiencies with photothermal materials that reside at the air–water interface to provide a localized thermal energy source when subjected to solar radiation. In this work, composite foams of carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were fabricated by a facile salt-leaching technique and used as interfacial receivers for solar evaporation. The inclusion of CNPs significantly increases the solar absorptivity of the foams to ∼97% without impacting their inherently low thermal conductivity. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) modification was applied to endow the foams with hydrophilicity, thereby enabling continuous water transport to the air–water interface. An enhanced water evaporation rate of 1.26 kg/m²·h with a solar-to-evaporation efficiency of 80% was achieved under a relatively low solar input of 850 W/m². With their simple structure and excellent photothermal performance, the PVA-CNP/PDMS foams are promising candidates for solar evaporation applications.

中文翻译：

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太阳能驱动界面水蒸发，使用嵌入碳纳米粒子的开孔PDMS

太阳能驱动的蒸发是一种有前途的技术，具有许多潜在的应用，包括脱盐，发电，净化，灭菌和相分离。最近，许多研究都针对利用光热材料提高太阳能驱动的蒸发效率，这些材料位于空气-水界面，在受到太阳辐射时可提供局部热能。在这项工作中，碳纳米颗粒（CNPs）和聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）的复合泡沫是通过一种简便的盐浸技术制备的，并用作太阳能蒸发的界面接收器。包含CNP会显着提高泡沫的日光吸收率至〜97％，而不会影响其固有的低导热性。应用了聚乙烯醇（PVA）改性，使泡沫具有亲水性，从而能够将水连续输送到空气-水界面。水蒸发速率提高到1.26 kg / m在850 W / m ²的相对较低的太阳能输入下，太阳能蒸发效率达到80· ² h 。PVA-CNP / PDMS泡沫具有简单的结构和出色的光热性能，是太阳能蒸发应用的有希望的候选者。