Plant leaves inspired sunlight-driven purifier for high-efficiency clean water production

Hongya Geng, Qiang Xu, Mingmao Wu, Hongyun Ma, Panpan Zhang, Tiantian Gao, Liangti Qu (), Tianbao Ma () and Chun Li ()
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Hongya Geng: Tsinghua University
Qiang Xu: Tsinghua University
Mingmao Wu: Tsinghua University
Hongyun Ma: Tsinghua University
Panpan Zhang: Beijing Institute of Technology
Tiantian Gao: Tsinghua University
Liangti Qu: Tsinghua University
Tianbao Ma: Tsinghua University
Chun Li: Tsinghua University

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Natural vascular plants leaves rely on differences in osmotic pressure, transpiration and guttation to produce tons of clean water, powered by sunlight. Inspired by this, we report a sunlight-driven purifier for high-efficiency water purification and production. This sunlight-driven purifier is characterized by a negative temperature response poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel (PN) anchored onto a superhydrophilic melamine foam skeleton, and a layer of PNIPAm modified graphene (PG) filter membrane coated outside. Molecular dynamics simulation and experimental results show that the superhydrophilicity of the relatively rigid melamine skeleton significantly accelerates the swelling/deswelling rate of the PNPG-F purifier. Under one sun, this rational engineered structure offers a collection of 4.2 kg m−2 h−1 and an ionic rejection of > 99% for a single PNPG-F from brine feed via the cooperation of transpiration and guttation. We envision that such a high-efficiency sunlight driven system could have great potential applications in diverse water treatments.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09535-w

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