Bamboo shoot-based evaporator with self-cleaning and mildew-resistant for efficient solar steam generation

Interfacial solar evaporation (ISE) is a promising strategy for seawater desalination and sewage purification, which could be used to alleviate freshwater scarcity. However, low evaporation efficiency and poor stability restricted its practical viability. To solve this problem, we reported a facile and general in-situ pyrolysis reduction strategy for preparing silver microspheres doping bamboo shoot porous-carbon (Ag-BSC) for the first time. By coating bamboo shoot with Ag-BSC, the bamboo shoot-based double-layer solar evaporator (named AC-BS) was prepared. The photothermal layer of Ag-BSC not only possessed broad light absorption of 96 %, but also exhibited excellent bactericidal performance. Benefiting from the excellent thermal management of bamboo shoot and the photothermal conversion performance of Ag-CBS particles, under one sun illumination, the evaporation rate (ER) and efficiency of AC-BS were 1.51 kg m−2 h−1 and 86.8 %, respectively. AC-BS exhibited excellent mildew-resistant in seawater for seven consecutive days, without mildew aggregation. In particular, crystalline salt can be self-cleaned in the absence of light owing to the surface wettability of bamboo shoot. Furthermore, AC-BS also showed the outstanding purification effect, which could still keep stable evaporation efficiency in harsh environments. These properties of AC-BS ensured its high applicability and durability in practice.