Hierarchical MnO₂ Nanosheets Grown on Cotton Fabric as a Flexible and Washable Solar Evaporator for Seawater Desalination

Solar vapor generation is a renewable and hopeful technology for obtaining freshwater from underground water, dyeing wastewater, and seawater. Herein, hierarchical MnO2 nanosheets grown on cotton fabric (Mn-CF) have been developed for solar-driven water evaporation. Black MnO2 nanosheets and nanoflowers are in situ chemically deposited on cotton fabric (CF), which leads to a solar absorption ability as high as 95% from 300 to 2500 nm. Due to the synergistic effect of the super-hydrophilic CF and hierarchical MnO2 nanosheets, Mn-CF results in a water evaporation rate of 1.40 kg m–2 h–1 with the photothermal conversion efficiency of 87.48% under 1 sun illumination (1 kW m–2). During the desalination test, Mn-CF can be renewed by washing off the steamed salts through a simple ultrasonication or hand-washing. Moreover, Mn-CF remains stable after 40 cycles, each lasting 1 h under 1 sun irradiation. A Mn-CF-based solar steam generator (Mn-CF-SSG) enables to effectively purifying simulated dyeing wastewater and seawater using natural sunlight. The cost of preparing 1 m2 Mn-CF is about $1.5. This work provides a simple method to prepare flexible and washable Mn-CF-SSG with low-cost and high efficiency that has huge potential for practical application of seawater desalination.