Reduced Red Mud as the Solar Absorber for Solar-Driven Water Evaporation and Vapor–Electricity Generation

The emergent solar-driven water evaporation technology provides a reassuring scheme for red mud (RM) utilization in environment and materials science. With fewer restrictions on raw materials, wide availability of sheer quantity, and high complexity in chemical composition, the RM may be a promising candidate for solar absorbers. Here, we developed a novel solar absorber with reduced RM. It features favorable light absorption and photothermal conversion ability using biomass pyrolysis. When added to the polyvinyl alcohol and chitosan gel substrate, the light absorptance can reach 94.65%, while the corresponding evaporation rate is as high as 2.185 kg m–2 h–1 under an illumination density of 1 kW m–2. We further demonstrated its potential as an efficient solar absorber in the solar-driven water evaporation and the thermoelectric device to realize the stable and efficient coproduction of vapor and electricity.