Co-Assembled WS2 Nanosheets/Chitosan Aerogels with Oriented Micro-Channels for Efficient and Sustainable Solar Steam Generation

Construction of anisotropic micro-channels in aerogel-based evaporators has been considered as a promising way to solve the salt accumulation and contaminant influence issues in the solar-driven interfacial evaporation process, however, which still suffer from drawbacks like costly fabrications. Herein, composite aerogels with anisotropic micro-channels were constructed through a simple co-assembly strategy between biomass chitosan and WS2 nanosheets. Ascribing to the synergetic effects of photothermal conversion capabilities of WS2 nanosheets and hydrophilia of chitosan, as well as the oriented microporous channels throughout the aerogels, the obtained aerogels (CS/WS2) exhibited a max evaporation rate of ∼2.10 kg m–2 h–1 and a conversion efficiency of ∼87.9% under 1 sun illumination and presented continuous production of clean water even in acidic, alkaline, and organic dye solutions and high-salinity brines. Thus, this study paves a novel and simple strategy to build anisotropic micro-channels in aerogel evaporators for efficient and sustainable solar evaporation and desalination.