Figure 5. Solar-powered water purification equipment based on
MF@HPB-PPy10-OA in realistic outdoor environment. (a)
Lateral view, (b) top view (photo credit: Chun Chang, NENU) and (c)
internal construction view. (d) Real-time monitoring of SVG data from
5:00
to 17:00.
Purity
measurements by using a multimeter: (e) world sea, (f) purified water,
(g) drinking water (from the water purifier supply system of NENU) and
(h) ultrapure water. (i) Salinity of two simulated seawater samples (3.5
wt% and 10.0 wt%) before and after purification based on
MF@HPB-PPy10-OA.
intensity
of about 0.61kw m-2), which is sufficient to meet the
average daily drinking water demand of an adult. Impedance measurements
are conducted by multimeter to evaluate the electrolyte concentration
and purity of the purified water. In Figure 5e-5h, the water
purification effect is outstanding and the water quality is markedly
superior to the drinking water supplied by daily water purifier and well
above that of seawater. After desalination, the salinities of water in
samples (3.5 wt% and 10 wt% salinity) are all below the WHO and EPA
(World Health Organization and US Environmental Protection Agency)
drinking water quality standards by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. The
major ions, such as Na+, Mg2+,
K+ and Ca2+, are decreased in
concentration by 3-4 orders of magnitude compared to seawater (Figure
S20). This system can also be applied to the purification of industrial
wastewater containing heavy metals or dyes (Figure S21a and Figure
S21b), where the concentration of pollutants in the purified water is
also reduced greatly and meets the discharge standards. These
outstanding purification results demonstrate the great potential of
MF@HPB-PPy10-OA for practical photothermal seawater
desalination and wastewater purification. Furthermore, the advantages of
MF@HPB-PPy10-OA in terms of mechanical properties,
applicability and fabrication process (simple, low-cost and batch
fabrication) allow for facile scale-up in commercialization (2.7 USD
m-2, see section 2.2 synthesis for details).