Hollow carbon fiber wrapped by regular rGO wave-like folds for efficient solar driven interfacial water steam generation

Abstract Efficient seawater desalination is an effective way to solve the shortages of fresh water and energy but with limitations of the low fresh water production rate and high cost. Here, a hollow carbon fiber (HCF) wrapped by regular reduced graphene oxide (rGO) wave-like folds (rGO@HCF) is prepared on account of the differences in thermal shrinkage performance between graphene oxide (GO) and willow catkins fiber. Under one sun irradiation (1 kW m −2 ), the dry and wet surface temperature of the resulting evaporator reached up to 119.1 °C and 61.7 °C, respectively, and the water steam production rate reached 3.42 kg m −2 h −1 . Also, for the outdoor experiment, the rGO@HCF exhibits good evaporator performance which reach up 27.8 kg m −2 day −1 . Additionally, rGO@HCF also shows good seawater desalination performance and excellent durability for longtime work. DSC results indicate that the evaporation enthalpy of bulk water and adsorbed water decreased from 2503.92 to 1020.54 J g −1 . The excellent evaporating performance is mainly attributed to the regular wave-like microstructure surface of the HCF, which can enhance the light absorption, reduced the vaporization enthalpy of the adsorption water. The findings not only introduce a novel approach for agricultural utilization, but also establish a crucial theoretical foundation for the design of regular wave-like microstructures.