Potato-based microporous carbon cake: Solar radiation induced water treatment

The use of solar-driven interfacial water evaporation for water desalination is a very interesting research topic for its high-performance water purification. The rapid evaporation of water at the air-water interface has been enhanced by solar absorbers. This work described the fabrication of a porous carbon cake with interconnected pores and super-hydrophilic surfaces from a potato slice. The fabricated carbon cake exhibits a high steam generation rate of 3.18 kg m -2 h -1 under 1 sun illumination. We also fabricated a large area evaporator and demonstrated the collection of more than 2.8 lit of condensed water from 0.8 m 2 area in 5.5 h with natural (∼0.5 Sun) solar illumination. High evaporation rate was obtained due to the super-hydrophilic and less thermal conductivity of the as-fabricated carbon cake. Moreover, the device providing a high mechanical stability, which could be necessary for long-term potential usage. The high salt rejection ability of the device were investigated in detail. The total cost to generate freshwater from CEPC STE for nearly 8 months is $ 36.54/m 2 . Therefore, this system can be used for evaporation-based high concentrated dye and brine water purification in a cost-effective and highly efficient way . • A porous carbon cake was fabricated with interconnected pores and hydrophobic surfaces from potato. • The carbon cake exhibits an excellent water evaporation and nearly 100% water purification. • Carbon cake exhibits a high steam generation rate of 3.18 kg m -2 h -1 under 1 sun illumination. • 2.8 lit of fresh water were collected from large area solar still of 0.8 m 2 under 0.5sun natural sunlight for 5.5 h.