Constructing NH2-MIL-125(Ti) derived evaporator for simultaneous photocatalytic decontamination and water evaporation

The pollutants present in wastewater can cause structural damage to evaporators, thereby reducing their evaporation efficiency and hindering the application of solar-driven water evaporation technologies. Here, the TiO 2 -based evaporator (CPM-Air) with highly efficient photodegradation and solar-powered water evaporation performance for simultaneous freshwater production and decontamination was prepared by pyrolysis NH 2 -MIL-125(Ti) grown on the surface of Carbon Felt (CF). The evaporation rate of CPM-Air evaporator reached 2.21 kg m -2 h −1 under 1.0 kW/m 2 , and high solar-vapor conversion efficiency of 102.20 %. Meanwhile, the Anatase TiO 2 obtained by carbonized NH 2 -MIL-125 (Ti) has more active sites for removal pollutants. CF as the catalytic promoter to accelerate electron transport, and improve the photogenerated electron-hole separation efficiency. The photothermal-photocatalytic synergy removal efficiency of high concentration (50 mg/L) CIP was 2 times higher than photocatalytic only. In addition, the CPM-Air evaporator has high water evaporation rate in different harsh environments, the 99.9 % of metal ions removal and excellent salt resistance. More importantly, the growth experiments on soybean indicated that the products of photothermal-photocatalytic synergy degradation CIP of CPM-Air evaporator was non-biotoxic. This study provides valuable insights into the potential of photothermal-photocatalytic synergy for sustainable water production.