With the ever-growing demand in fresh water supply, great efforts have been devoted to developing sustainable systems which could generate fresh water continuously. Solar vapor generation is one of the promising strategies which comprise an unlimited energy source and efficient solar-to-heat generators for overcoming fresh water scarcity. However, current solar vapor generation systems suffer either from inefficient utilization of solar energy or an expensive fabrication process. In this paper, we introduced a nano-plasmonic approach, i.e., a floatable nanocompoiste where copper sulfide nanorods (Cu_2-xS NRs) are embedded in a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix, for solar-to-vapor generation. A high solar vapor generation efficiency of ~87% and water evaporation rate of 1.270 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ were achieved under simulated solar irradiation of 1 sun. With the illumination of natural daylight, seawater was purified using Cu_2-xS NRs-PVA gel, with high purity, as distilled drinking water. The plasmonic nanocomposites demonstrated here are easy to fabricate and highly efficient for solar vapor generation, illustrating a potential solution for future seawater desalination.

中文翻译：

---

使用等离子加热纳米复合材料通过界面太阳蒸气产生法进行海水淡化。

随着对淡水供应的不断增长的需求，人们致力于开发可持续的系统，该系统可以连续产生淡水。产生太阳蒸气是一种有前途的策略之一，其中包括无限的能源和有效的太阳能发电设备，可解决淡水短缺的问题。然而，当前的太阳能蒸汽产生系统遭受太阳能利用效率低下或昂贵的制造过程的困扰。在本文中，我们介绍了一种纳米等离子体方法，即一种可漂浮的纳米复合材料，其中将硫化铜纳米棒（Cu _2-x S NRs）嵌入聚乙烯醇（PVA）基质中，以产生太阳能至蒸气。高达87％的高太阳蒸气产生效率和1.270 kg m ^-2 h的水蒸发速率在1个太阳的模拟太阳辐射下获得^-1。在自然光的照射下，使用高纯度的Cu _2-x S NRs-PVA凝胶作为蒸馏水净化了海水。这里展示的等离激元纳米复合材料易于制造，并且对于产生太阳蒸气非常高效，说明了未来海水淡化的潜在解决方案。