Solar-driven water evaporation has emerged as a sustainable approach for water purification and desalination, helping to relieve the long-standing water scarcity issues. However, achieving strong mechanical structure and superior light absorption simultaneously in an evaporator for various realistic conditions in marine environment remains challenging. Here, we prepared a hydrophilic and oleophobic TiCT MXene/gelatin (M&G) composite aerogel with vertically aligned channels which are propitious to water transport, light absorption and vapor release for clean water generation. Simultaneously, the composite aerogel has excellent dry compression resistance and wet resilience due to the addition of gelatin, which are benefit to resist shear forces caused by water surface fluctuations. Acting as solar evaporator, M&G composite aerogel demonstrates high evaporation rate (1.7 kg mh, 1 sun) and preferable wastewater purification abilities. Furthermore, the hydrophilic and oleophobic properties of the composite aerogel is critical to extract water from oil/water mixture to adapt to the application of diverse water environments. Therefore, the designed composite aerogels show great potential for water treatment in a variety of water sources.

中文翻译：

---

多功能亲水性 MXene/明胶复合气凝胶，具有垂直排列的通道，可实现高效、可持续的太阳能水蒸发和油/水分离


太阳能驱动的水蒸发已成为一种可持续的水净化和海水淡化方法，有助于缓解长期存在的水资源短缺问题。然而，在海洋环境中的各种实际条件下，在蒸发器中同时实现坚固的机械结构和优异的光吸收仍然具有挑战性。在这里，我们制备了一种亲水疏油的 TiCT MXene/明胶 (M&G) 复合气凝胶，其具有垂直排列的通道，有利于水传输、光吸收和蒸汽释放，从而产生清洁水。同时，由于明胶的添加，复合气凝胶具有优异的干压缩性能和湿回弹性，有利于抵抗水面波动引起的剪切力。作为太阳能蒸发器，M&G复合气凝胶表现出高蒸发率（1.7 kg mh，1 sun）和较好的废水净化能力。此外，复合气凝胶的亲水和疏油特性对于从油/水混合物中提取水以适应不同水环境的应用至关重要。因此，所设计的复合气凝胶在各种水源的水处理方面显示出巨大的潜力。