Experimental study of electric field enhancing the vapor production of the solar interfacial evaporator

Solar interfacial evaporation is a kind of clean and sustainable vapor production method, and previous researches commonly focus on the material and structure of evaporator. While, the wettability and heat transfer could be enhanced by the electric field. Herein, to improve the vapor production and solar energy utilization efficiency, a novel evaporator combined with electrodes is designed to couple the active regulation of electric field and solar interfacial evaporation. With the qualitative analysis in each electric field condition, vapor production is found to be profoundly improved by the electric field, which is considered to adjustably conduct a synergy of wettability, water transportation and phase change. Specifically, under the solar irradiation of 1 kW m−2, the net evaporation efficiency could be enhanced from 57.05% to 89.02%, and the evaporation rate could be significantly reinforced by 51% simultaneously. Through quantitatively evaluating the correlation between electric field strength and the enhancement, it is concluded that there exists an optimal electric field for evaporator on various circumstances. The present study has experimentally integrated the electric field regulative method and interfacial evaporation technology, which provides an innovative approach to optimize the vapor production of diverse evaporator and underlies the efficient utilization of solar energy.