Flexible Anti-Biofouling MXene/Cellulose Fibrous Membrane for Sustainable Solar-Driven Water Purification

Xiang Jun Zha, Xing Zhao, Jun Hong Pu, Li Sheng Tang, Kai Ke, Rui Ying Bao, Lu Bai, Zheng Ying Liu, Ming Bo Yang, Wei Yang (Corresponding Author)

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

278 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Solar-driven interfacial water evaporation is regarded as an effective, renewable, and environment-friendly technology for clean water production. However, biofouling caused by the nonspecific interaction between the steam generator and biofoulants generally hinders the efficient application of wastewater treatment. Herein, this work reports a facile strategy to fabricate flexible anti-biofouling fibrous photothermal membrane consisting of a MXene-coated cellulose membrane for highly efficient solar-driven water steam evaporation toward water purification applications. The as-prepared MXene/cellulose photothermal membrane exhibits light absorption efficiency as high as ∼94% in a wide solar spectrum range and a water evaporation rate up to 1.44 kg m-2 h-1 under one solar illumination. Also, the MXene/cellulose membrane shows very high antibacterial efficiency (above 99.9%) owing to the MXene coating as a highly effective bacteriostatic agent. Such a flexible, anti-biofouling, and high-efficiency photothermal membrane sheds light on practical applications in long-term wastewater treatments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)36589-36597
Number of pages9
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume11
Issue number40
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Oct 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • anti-biofouling
  • cellulose
  • long-term water purification
  • membrane
  • MXene
  • solar steam generation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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