A bifunctional solar evaporator based on FeOCl/carbon cloth for high-performance steam generation coupled with efficient volatiles degradation

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) is a promising technology for alleviating global freshwater shortage due to operational simplicity and reliance on sustainable and green power. However, the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are commonly found in feedwater, is the major obstacle to SDIE. Herein, we proposed a FeOCl-carbon cloth (FeOCl-CC) bifunctional evaporator that integrated SDIE with Fenton reaction to prevent VOC enrichment in condensation water. The results indicated that FeOCl-CC had outstanding evaporation performance. Its evaporation rate reached 1.68 kg m-2 h-1 under light density of 1.0 kW m-2. More significantly, the VOC removal efficiency of FeOCl-CC remarkably reached 88.6 ± 0.8% compared to sole evaporation (19.2 ± 4.1%) with the benefit of the synergetic Fenton reaction. Besides, the prepared evaporator exhibited an excellent stability with the removal rate of VOC ~ 80% even after 5 times of recycling. Particularly, the evaporator was verified to be able to remove VOC from various types of actual water. The VOC removal rate was as high as 92.4 ± 1.6% for the simulated high salinity wastewater (NaCl 3 wt%). Even, the FeOCl-CC evaporator could remove up to 63.2% of TOC from actual coking wastewater. Therefore, the evaporator is believed to have wide development potential in different fields of wastewater treatment.