Simple and robust MXene/carbon nanotubes/cotton fabrics for textile wastewater purification via solar-driven interfacial water evaporation

The development of effective and low-cost techniques to purify textile wastewater has received intensive attention, but the applicability and practicality of many methods still remain challenging. Solar-driven interfacial water evaporation is a promising method and herein, a novel MXene/Carbon nanotubes/Cotton fabric was fabricated via layer-by-layer assembly to be used as solar steam generation for textile wastewater purification. Benefiting from the strong interfacial interactions, the composite fabric exhibited robust optical absorption, light-to-thermal conversion, and water transport properties. The evaporation rate reaches 1.35 kg m−2 for water and > 1.16 kg m−2h−1 for textile wastewater under one sun illumination, which is superior to those fabric-based materials in reported literature. The concentrations of organic–inorganic contaminants in condensed freshwater can be well reduced, which is always ignored but important to actual application. Furthermore, the reusability test and outdoor experiment were performed to demonstrate the photothermal properties when applied in practical situation. In sum, the results demonstrated that high-efficiency and durable properties coupled with simple preparation process make this composite material a potential candidate for wastewater purification via solar-evaporation.