Solar steam generation has attracted much attention due to its efficient and ecofriendly characteristics for application in water desalination and wastewater treatment. Many strategies have been developed to prepare the photothermal conversion materials. However, it is a challenge for preparing the materials with high energy efficiency, long durability and excellent salt resistance under 1 kW·m⁻² illumination by using low-cost materials and simple method. Here, we report an ATP (Attapulgite) based PArG aerogel with low thermal conductivity (0.167 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹), high mechanical property and superhydrophilicity by using combination of physical/chemical crosslinking of the ATP, PVA, GO and PA and freeze-drying for the efficient solar steam generation. The as-prepared PArG-A30 aerogel shows aligned three-dimensional porous structure and possesses high evaporation performance both in salt solution and the simulated seawater. The evaporation rate is calculated to be 1.4914 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ for pure water, 1.4382 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ for 20% of NaCl solution and the corresponding energy conversion is found to be 89.5% and 86% under 1 kW·m⁻² illumination. In addition, the as-prepared PArG-A30 aerogel shows excellent durability and salt resistance in 20% NaCl solution, indicating the excellent the desalination performance of the resultant PArG-A30 aerogels. This study may offer a new approach to scalable fabricate a novel solar steam generator for the efficient solar steam generation by using simple method and low-cost materials.

太阳能蒸汽发电因其高效，环保的特性而在海水淡化和废水处理中得到广泛应用，因此备受关注。已经开发了许多制备光热转化材料的策略。然而，通过使用低成本的材料和简单的方法来制备在1kW·m ^-2的照明下具有高能量效率，长耐久性和优异的耐盐性的材料是一个挑战。在这里，我们报告了一种基于ATP（凹凸棒石）的PArG气凝胶，其导热系数低（0.167 W·m ^-1 ·K ^-1），通过将ATP，PVA，GO和PA的物理/化学交联与冷冻干燥相结合来实现高机械性能和超亲水性，从而有效地产生太阳能蒸汽。所制备的PArG-A30气凝胶显示出对齐的三维多孔结构，并且在盐溶液和模拟海水中均具有很高的蒸发性能。对于纯水，蒸发速率经计算为1.4914 kg·m ^-2 ·h ^-1，对于20％的NaCl溶液为1.4382 kg·m ^-2 ·h ^-1，相应的能量转化为89.5％和86 1 kW·m ^-2以下的百分比照明。另外，所制备的PArG-A30气凝胶在20％NaCl溶液中显示出优异的耐久性和耐盐性，表明所得PArG-A30气凝胶的优异的脱盐性能。这项研究可能会提供一种新的方法，以通过使用简单的方法和低成本的材料来可伸缩地制造新颖的太阳能蒸汽发生器，以有效地产生太阳能蒸汽。