Novel solar membrane distillation system based on Ti3C2TX MXene nanofluids with high photothermal conversion efficiency

As a new desalination process, membrane distillation (MD) technology effectively combines thermal treatment with membrane separation and has great commercial application potential owing to its lower operating temperature and pressure requirements. Meanwhile, solar energy can be used to save conventional fossil energy consumption. However, the high efficient solar membrane distillation (SMD) with a simple system design is still challenging due to the low photo-thermal conversion efficiency. In this work, a new type of photo-thermal conversion material based on Ti3C2Tx MXene was developed and further integrated into a novel SMD system. In this system, the distillation process is driven by sunlight irradiating photo-thermal conversion particles to heat the feedwater, completely eliminating the extra energy input. Specifically, single-layer Ti3C2Tx MXene is selected as the high efficient photo-thermal conversion particle. Experiments results show that the membrane flux of the system can reach 2.375 kg·m−2·h−1, much higher than that of most reported SMD systems. Our research provides both experimental and theoretical basis for achieving efficient utilization of solar energy and membrane distillation seawater desalination.