Rationally constructing a 3D bifunctional solar evaporator for high-performance water evaporation coupled with pollutants degradation

In this work, nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes encapsulated with Co are grown on carbon fibers (Co-NCNT/CF) and utilized as photothermal materials to construct 3D evaporators, which simultaneously realize highly efficient solar evaporation and organic pollutant degradation. The deliberate structure enables the 3D evaporator to take advantage of the spontaneously generated internal convection flow to significantly enhance solar evaporation, achieving a high evaporation rate of 3.85 kg m−2 h−1 under 1.0 sun irradiation. More importantly, the evaporator exhibits excellent performance on peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation, effectively preventing phenol in water sources from entering the condensed clean water. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation shows that the enhanced van der Waals interaction facilitates PMS adsorption and activation on the confined inner surfaces of Co-NCNT compared to the unconfined system. This solar evaporator successfully combines interfacial solar evaporation and advanced oxidation processes, providing a new strategy for producing clean water from water sources containing organic volatiles.