Multifunctional hydrophilic MXene/Gelatin composite aerogel with vertically aligned channels for efficient sustainable solar water evaporation and Oil/Water separation

Solar-driven water evaporation has emerged as a sustainable approach for water purification and desalination, helping to relieve the long-standing water scarcity issues. However, achieving strong mechanical structure and superior light absorption simultaneously in an evaporator for various realistic conditions in marine environment remains challenging. Here, we prepared a hydrophilic and oleophobic Ti3C2Tx MXene/gelatin (M&G) composite aerogel with vertically aligned channels which are propitious to water transport, light absorption and vapor release for clean water generation. Simultaneously, the composite aerogel has excellent dry compression resistance and wet resilience due to the addition of gelatin, which are benefit to resists shear forces caused by water surface fluctuations. Acting as solar evaporator, M&G composite aerogel demonstrates high evaporation rate (1.7 kg m-2 h-1, 1 sun) and preferable wastewater purification abilities. Furthermore, the hydrophilic and oleophobic properties of the composite aerogel is critical to extract water from oil/water mixture to adapt to the application of diverse water environments. Therefore, the designed composite aerogels show great potential for water treatment in a variety of water sources.