SDS-assisted solar evaporation on floating carbon-based hybrid porous evaporator

Solar evaporation systems represent a green and sustainable strategy for obtaining fresh water. However, traditional evaporation processes depend on the heating of bulk water. Recently, floating solar absorbers have demonstrated excellent evaporation efficiency via localized heating at the device–water interface. In this work, a floating carbon-based hybrid porous evaporator was prepared through simple and inexpensive phase conversion methods, effectively improving the water evaporation efficiency two-fold compared to pure water. The evaporators and evaporation process were characterized by mercury porosimeter, scanning electron microscope , near-infrared spectrometer, infrared thermography , and differential scanning calorimetry . Furthermore, by introducing sodium dodecyl sulfate to regulate the surface hydrophobicity and hydrogen bond structure of water at the device–water interface, the evaporation rate was further improved to 1.27 kg·m −2 ·h −1 (three times that of pure water) at the optimal sodium dodecyl sulfate concentration of 0.3–1 mmol·L −1 . The system also demonstrated excellent practical performance and durability in the evaporation of seawater , salt solutions, and under natural sunlight conditions. This work creates a new avenue for the evaporation applications of hydrophobic carbon-based materials and provides a strategy to regulate solar evaporation systems from the perspective of bulk water by introduction of a surfactant .