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Solar energy seems to be a promising solution for obtaining clean water from saltwater and wastewater. With the solar steam generator system, it is possible to effectively acquire clean water from wastewater with a low-cost, sustainable, and environmentally friendly approach. In this study, PRF/GGSM, prepared by modification of gradient graphene sponge material (GGSM) with porphyrin derivative supramolecules (PRF), was investigated as a photothermal material for solar steam generation. PRF/GGSM possessing graphene and PRF served as ideal solar thermal converters that could easily gather sunlight. This material owing to its microporous and gradient hydrophilic structure has achieved a solar thermal conversion efficiency of up to 92% under 1 sun, corresponding to the water evaporation rate of 3.8 kg h -1 m -2 . Moreover, this study exhibited that PRF/GGSM can efficiently generate clean water from seawater, wastewater, and even concentrated acid and alkali solutions.

Significant progress has been made in designing advanced membranes; however, persistent challenges remain due to their reduced permeation rates and a propensity for substantial fouling. These factors continue to pose significant barriers to the effective utilization of membranes in the separation of oil-in-water emulsions. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are considered promising materials for such applications; however, they encounter three key challenges when applied to the separation of oil from water: (a) lack of water stability; (b) difficulty in producing defect-free membranes; and (c) unresolved issue of stabilizing the MOF separating layer on the ceramic membrane (CM) support. In this study, a defect-free hydrolytically stable zirconium-based MOF separating layer was formed through a two-step method: first, by in situ growth of UiO-66-NH 2 MOF into the voids of polydopamine (PDA)-functionalized CM during the solvothermal process, and then by facilitating the self-assembly of UiO-66-NH 2 with PDA using a pressurized dead-end assembly. A stable MOF separating layer was attained by enriching the ceramic support with amines and hydroxyl groups using PDA, which assisted in the assembly and stabilization of UiO-66-NH 2 . The PDA-s-UiO-66-NH 2 -CM membrane displayed air superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity, demonstrating its oil resistance and high antifouling behavior. The PDA-s-UiO-66-NH 2 -CM membrane has shown exceptionally high permeability and separation capacity for challenging oil-in-water emulsions. This is attributed to numerous nanochannels from the membrane and its high resistance to oil adhesion. The membranes showed excellent stability over 15 continuous test cycles, which indicates that the developed MOFs separating layers have a low tendency to be clogged by oil droplets during separation. Machine learning-based Gaussian process regression (GPR) models as nonparametric kernel-based probabilistic models were employed to predict the performance efficiency of the PDA-s-UiO-66-NH 2 -CM membrane in oil-in-water separation. The outcomes were compared with the support vector machine (SVM) and decision tree (DT) algorithm. This efficiency includes various metrics related to its separation accuracy, and the models were developed through feature engineering to identify and utilize the most significant factors affecting the membrane's performance. The results proved the reliability of GPR optimization with the highest prediction accuracy in the validation phase. The average percentage increase of the GPR model compared to the SVM and DT model was 6.11 and 42.94%, respectively.

Janus structural interfacial vaporization by separating the solar absorber from the bulk working fluid has attracted tremendous attention due to its low heat losses and high solar conversion efficiency for desalination, water purification, energy generation, etc. However, a totally separated double-deck structure with a discontinuous interfacial transition and inefficient photothermic materials undermines its long-term use and large-scale practical exploitation. Herein, a low-cost Janus monolithic chitosan aerogel with continuous aligned run-through microchannels has been demonstrated to have a highly efficient photothermic effect on seawater desalination and wastewater purification. The top solar absorber layer enhances broadband light absorption and photothermal conversion efficiency via the multiple internal reflection of incident light in the aligned microchannels. Moreover, the insulating/hydrophilic bottom layer promotes water transportation and heat localization, and simultaneously prevents salt/fouling accumulation. As a result, a long-term solar vaporization rate of ∼1.76 kg m -2 h -1 is achieved, corresponding to a light-to-vapor efficiency of ∼91% under 1 sun irradiation. Notably, the large-vessel microchannels throughout the aerogel and favorable swelling property provide sufficient water replenishment and storage for completely isolating self-contained evaporation, illustrating an enhanced and time-extended self-contained solar steam generation. Such a low-cost bilayer aerogel with remarkable cycling stability in various fluids offers potential opportunities for freshwater production in remote rural areas.

Solar steam generation is considered to be a promising strategy for sustainable clean water supply. An easily made and robust solar still can practically meet any contingency in wilderness survival, compared to high-cost and delicate solar thermal materials, for example, plasmonic metals, carbon nanotubes, or graphene-based materials. Inspired by rice plants with high transpiration, we develop a universal solar steam-generation device from wasted rice straw for robust clean water production. The upper leaves of rice straw are carbonized and composited with bacterial cellulose to function as a superior light absorber and the lower culms are designed as excellent water pumps. The unique capillary structures and multilevel geometrical structures of the rice culms contribute to their outstanding water pumping capacity for surface evaporation, resulting in an evaporation rate of 1.2 kg m -2 h -1 with 75.8% conversion efficiency. The rice straw-derived solar still has a daily clean water yield of 6.4-7.9 kg m -2 on sunny days and 4.6-5.6 kg m -2 on cloudy days over 14 days of operation. More attention-grabbing aspect is that this evaporation device is applicable to various water-bearing media, for example, sand, soil, and seawater, to collect clean water with a stable evaporation performance, and the unique multilevel structures of the culms make great contribution to the unimpeded water channels. By turning "waste" to "wealth," this project shines significant light on a facilely fabricated, robust, and efficient solar still, especially designed for urgent priority in wilderness survival.