Simultaneous photothermal and photocatalytic MOF- derived C/TiO2 composites for high-efficiency solar driven purification of sewage

Solar-driven water evaporation is a promising technology of freshwater production to address the water scarcity. However, the photothermal material and the distilled water would be contaminated in the evaporation of wastewater including organic pollutants. In this work, MOF-derived C/TiO2 composites (carbonized UiO-66-NH2 (Ti)) with simultaneous photothermal and photocatalytic functions are designed for producing freshwater from sewage. With advantageous features of porous structure with large specific area, excellent sunlight absorption and super-hydrophilicity, the carbonized UiO-66-NH2 (Ti) layer exhibits high water evaporation efficiency of 94% under 1.0 sun irradiation. Meanwhile, the layer can simultaneously decompose the organic pollutants with degradation efficiency of 92.7% in the underlying water during solar-driven water evaporation. This bifunctional material will provide a new approach for solar-driven water evaporation and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant synergistically.