Renewable energy-enabled desalination systems are crucial for solving the global water scarcity challenges in an environmentally friendly manner. In this work, we report an air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) process that utilizes polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes blended with a photothermally active and relatively inexpensive activated carbon (AC). The composite membrane absorbed the solar radiation and generated local heat at the membrane surface, providing the driving force required in the AGMD process. This strategy overcame one of the key limitations of traditional MD—temperature polarization, and increased the energy efficiency significantly. We show that the blending of 5 to 9 %AC into the PVDF matrix can significantly boost the solar-energy-driven flux of AGMD by 281–1400 %, compared to the pristine membrane. PVDF membrane blended with 9 %AC exhibited an average AGMD permeate flux of 0.31 kg.m⁻².h⁻¹, with a GOR of 0.29 and a photothermal efficiency of 17.64 %. All PVDF-AC membranes showed excellent salt rejection, reaching 99.9 % for PVDF-9%AC. Finally, the AGMD performance of the fabricated membranes was compared by estimating their normalized MD coefficients (B/δ). PVDF-9%AC exhibited a B/δ value of 18.8E-5 kg s⁻¹ m⁻³ Pa⁻¹, as opposed to a meager 0.89E-5 kg s⁻¹ m⁻³ Pa⁻¹ exhibited by its pristine counterpart.

可再生能源海水淡化系统对于以环保方式解决全球水资源短缺挑战至关重要。在这项工作中，我们报告了一种气隙膜蒸馏 (AGMD) 工艺，该工艺利用聚偏二氟乙烯 (PVDF) 膜与光热活性和相对便宜的活性炭 (AC) 混合。复合膜吸收太阳辐射并在膜表面产生局部热量，提供 AGMD 过程所需的驱动力。该策略克服了传统 MD 的关键限制之一——温度极化，并显着提高了能源效率。我们表明，与原始膜相比，将 5% 到 9% 的 AC 混合到 PVDF 基质中可以显着提高太阳能驱动的 AGMD 通量 281% 到 1400%。^-2 .h ^-1，GOR为0.29，光热效率为17.64%。所有 PVDF-AC 膜都表现出优异的脱盐率，PVDF-9%AC 达到 99.9%。最后，通过估计它们的归一化 MD 系数 (B/δ) 来比较制造膜的 AGMD 性能。PVDF-9%AC 的 B/δ 值为 18.8E-5 kg s ^-1  m ^-3  Pa ^-1，而其原始材料的 B/δ 值仅为 0.89E-5 kg s ^-1  m ^-3  Pa ^-1对方。