Surface heating membrane distillation overcomes several limitations inherent in conventional membrane distillation technology. Here we report a successful effort to grow in situ a hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nanocoating on a stainless-steel wire cloth (hBN-SSWC), and its application as a scalable electrothermal heating material in surface heating membrane distillation. The novel hBN-SSWC provides superior vapour permeability, thermal conductivity, electrical insulation and anticorrosion properties, all of which are critical for the long-term surface heating membrane distillation performance, particularly with hypersaline solutions. By simply attaching hBN-SSWC to a commercial membrane and providing power with an a.c. supply at household frequency, we demonstrate that hBN-SSWC is able to support an ultrahigh power intensity (50 kW m⁻²) to desalinate hypersaline solutions with exceptionally high water flux (and throughput), single-pass water recovery and heat utilization efficiency while maintaining excellent material stability. We also demonstrate the exceptional performance of hBN-SSWC in a scalable and compact spiral-wound electrothermal membrane distillation module.

表面加热膜蒸馏克服了常规膜蒸馏技术固有的一些限制。在这里，我们报告了在不锈钢丝布（hBN-SSWC）上原位生长六方氮化硼（hBN）纳米涂层的成功努力，并将其作为可扩展的电热加热材料在表面加热膜蒸馏中的应用。新型的hBN-SSWC具有出色的透湿性，导热性，电绝缘性和防腐性能，所有这些对于长期的表面加热膜蒸馏性能至关重要，特别是在高盐溶液中。通过简单地将hBN-SSWC连接到商业膜并以家用频率为交流电源供电，我们证明了hBN-SSWC能够支持超高功率强度（50 kW m⁻²）使高盐通量（高通量），单程水回收和热利用效率脱盐的高盐溶液，同时保持出色的材料稳定性。我们还展示了hBN-SSWC在可扩展且紧凑的螺旋缠绕电热膜蒸馏模块中的出色性能。