The past few years have witnessed a rapid development of solar‐driven interfacial evaporation, a promising technology for low‐cost water desalination. As of today, solar‐to‐steam conversion ...efficiencies close to 100% or even beyond the limit are becoming increasingly achievable in virtue of unique photothermal materials and structures. Herein, the cutting‐edge approaches are summarized, and their mechanisms for photothermal structure architecting are uncovered in order to achieve ultrahigh conversion efficiency. Design principles to enhance evaporation performance and currently available salt‐rejection strategies for long‐term desalination are systematically investigated. The guidelines to utilize every component in solar desalination systems for simultaneous in situ energy generation are also revealed. Finally, opportunities and challenges for future works in this field are also discussed and concluded.
How to achieve high‐performance of photothermal conversion for efficient solar desalination is discussed in detail from a structural point of view. Strategies to enable salt‐rejection and simultaneous energy generation with tailored structures are also systematically summarized. Further attention should be devoted to the practical implementation of this low‐cost desalination technology.
Atmospheric humidity, an abundant source of water, is widely considered as a redundant resource demanding expense of energy to maintain it under comfortable levels for human habitation. Until now, ...there have only been a few attempts to harness humidity for applications such as water collection and hygro-induced movements. Herein, we report an unprecedented moisture scavenging gel that is capable of absorbing around 230% of its weight with water from humid atmospheres. Additionally, the gel has humidity-triggered changes in optical, electrical, and electrochemical properties that can be exploited for a wide range of applications such as thermo-hygroscopic windows, infrared radiation (IR) blocking windscreen, and construction of an electrochemical cell for energy harvesting. Integration of a thermo-hygroscopic window and IR blocking windscreen leads to extensive energy savings in buildings. Furthermore, the applicability of the gel as a conducting medium in flexible electronic substrates enables reusability of printed circuit boards, mitigating the volume of solid electronic wastes and the energy required for their disposal. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt at harnessing ambient humidity as a sustainable resource for energy conservation and harvesting.
Abstract
The ethylene response factors (ERFs) belong to the APETALA2/ethylene response factor (AP2/ERF) superfamily and act downstream of the ethylene signalling pathway to regulate the expression of ...ethylene responsive genes. In different species, ERFs have been reported to be involved in plant development, flower abscission, fruit ripening, and defense responses. In this review, based on the new progress made by recent studies, we summarize the specific role and mode of action of ERFs in regulating different aspects of ripening in both climacteric and non-climacteric fruits, and provide new insights into the role of ethylene in non-climacteric fruit ripening.
The salt fouling issue, which has become the major bottleneck hindering a sustainable solar desalination process in practice. Herein, a fluidic photothermal structure that is able to completely ...prevent salt formation for durable steam generation while achieving electricity generation during the one-way fluid transportation is reported. By continuously navigating the one-way saline fluid through solar absorber, salt rejection can be completely guaranteed during intense steam generation. The proposed strategy was demonstrated by a polyaniline (PANi)/cellulose bilayer and realized ultrahigh solar efficiency (92%) under 1 Sun illumination. We further show that electricity is synchronously generated via asymmetric deposition of functional carbon materials on capillary wicks, and voltage >0.2 V is readily derived with good scalability. This one-way fluidic structure exhibits favorable universality to nearly all the other planar solar absorbers and multistage solar stills, which would be of great practical significance to long-term solar desalination in the future.
Plastic waste caused by the extensive usage of face masks during COVID‐19 pandemic has become a severe threat to natural environment and ecosystem. Herein, an eco‐friendly approach to repurpose face ...mask waste for clean water production via solar thermal evaporation is proposed. By taking advantage of its interwind structure, face mask holds the promise to be an ideal candidate material for constructing photothermal evaporator. In‐situ surface modifications are performed successively with polyvinyl alcohol and polypyrrole to improve its wettability and solar absorption (97%). The obtained face mask‐based evaporator achieves significantly enhanced solar efficiency (91.5%) and long‐term salt‐rejection stability. The harvested clean water befits plant growing to enable farming on sea surface. A floating photothermal evaporation prototype is then developed to demonstrate autonomous solar ocean farming, with plants successfully cultivated over time. As such, the proposed strategy provides a promising solution towards ecological sustainability by tapping multiple benefits.
This work presents an eco‐friendly way to recycle large amount of wasted face masks into solar absorbers for clean water production. A prototype of floating farm is further demonstrated, using recycled face mask to convert abundant seawater into portable water for plants irrigation. Plants can be well thrived, giving a promising solution to land soil crisis and polymer white pollution.
Photoelectrochemical solar cells have gained impetus over the past two decades owing to several advantages over conventional Si solar cells. The redox capabilities of the electrolyte play a major ...role in determining the overall photo-conversion efficiency (PCE) of dye sensitized solar cells. In this work we report a novel low toxicity and environmentally friendly aqueous organic ionic conductor (AOIC) for high efficiency DSSCs. This study presents the effect of water on the photocurrent density ( J sc ) and stability of DSSCs. Interestingly we have also found that the addition of water to the OICs strongly alters the flat band potential ( E fb ) of nano-crystalline TiO 2 , hinders the recombination at the TiO 2 –AOIC interface and positively shifts the redox potential of I − /I 3 − . Under 1 sun illumination, OICs with 3-methoxypropionitrile solvent and OICs in water show a PCE of 6.02% and 3.57% respectively. This reduced PCE and J – V characteristics are attributed to the negative influence of water on the electron lifetime, electron recombination kinetics and the dark current. Substituting the electron withdrawing group present in the para-position of pyridinium salts mitigates the toxicity and enhances the cationic effect in the electrolyte. The DSSCs fabricated using AOICs showed excellent stability for more than 20 days.
Interfacial solar steam generation (ISSG) system has attracted extensive attention as a sustainable desalination technology because of its cost efficiency and zero fossil-energy consumption. Aiming ...at optimizing the desalination properties, materials and system design have been the current research focus. Recently, many novel bio-derived/bio-inspired design strategies were proposed owing to their highly efficient structures inherited from nature, which were fine-tuned over eons of evolution, as well as their low cost and ease of treatment. In this review, we are going to systematically report recent progress of various bio-derived/bio-inspired strategies in terms of optical design, wetting, thermal management, and overall system design, presenting an overview of the current challenges of bio-inspired materials in ISSG system and other application fields. This article is intended to provide a comprehensive review of recent developments about bio-derived/bio-inspired materials in ISSG system and conclude with suggestions regarding further research directions for performance enhancement through design of bio-derived/bio-inspired materials.
This brief applies the synchronization to solve control problem of redundantly actuated parallel manipulators. With the synchronization method, a new controller termed active joint-synchronization ...(AJ-S) controller is developed for a 2-degree-of-freedom (DOF) redundantly actuated parallel manipulator. The dynamic model of the parallel manipulator is formulated in the active joint space, in which the internal force is calculated by the projection method and the friction is depicted with the Coulomb + viscous friction model. By defining the tracking error, synchronization error, coupled error, and the referenced trajectory vector of the active joints, the AJ-S controller based on the dynamic model is designed. And the AJ-S controller is proven to guarantee asymptotic convergence to zero of both tracking and synchronization errors by the Barbalat's lemma. The AJ-S controller is implemented in the trajectory tracking experiments of an actual 2-DOF redundantly actuated parallel manipulator, and the superiority of the AJ-S controller over the well-known tracking controller is studied.
Abstract Cellulose fiber-based textiles are ubiquitous in daily life for their processability, biodegradability, and outstanding flexibility. Integrating cellulose textiles with functional coating ...materials can unlock their potential functionalities to engage diverse applications. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are ideal candidate materials for such integration, thanks to their unique merits, such as large specific surface area, tunable pore size, and species diversity. However, achieving scalable fabrication of MOFs-textiles with high mechanical durability remains challenging. Here, we report a facile and scalable strategy for direct MOF growth on cotton fibers grafted via the diazonium chemistry. The as-prepared ZIF-67-Cotton textile (ZIF-67-CT) exhibits excellent ultraviolet (UV) resistance and organic contamination degradation via the peroxymonosulfate activation. The ZIF-67-CT is also used to encapsulate essential oils such as carvacrol to enable antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus . Additionally, by directly tethering a hydrophobic molecular layer onto the MOF-coated surface, superhydrophobic ZIF-67-CT is achieved with excellent self-cleaning, antifouling, and oil-water separation performances. More importantly, the reported strategy is generic and applicable to other MOFs and cellulose fiber-based materials, and various large-scale multi-functional MOFs-textiles can be successfully manufactured, resulting in vast applications in wastewater purification, fragrance industry, and outdoor gears.
Three-dimensional (3D) information technology has become an important technical support in digital heritage preservation practice. However, due to the lack of systematic quantitative research, it is ...difficult to form a comprehensive understanding of the historic and cultural districts, from macro to micro. Our study aimed to establish a systematic 3D spatial diagnostic framework combining 3D scanning and SPSS data descriptive analysis and regression analysis for historic and cultural districts to promote sustainable historic and cultural area preservation. Taking Zhongshan Street in Qi County as an example, data statistical analysis was carried out on morphological feature data from the macro level of the district, the meso level of architecture, and the micro level of elements. The research conclusion shows that at the macro level the street form continues the main features of a traditional alley spatial skyline, height–width ratio, and sectional symbol language. At the meso level, the architecture reveals various periods of style in terms of the facade width and mathematical relationship between traditional architectural facades. At the micro level, architectural detailing explains the main reasons for the recent new construction being inconsistent with the historic and cultural district appearance. This quantitative diagnostic method can accurately analyze the current characteristics of historic and cultural districts and easily provide effective suggestions for follow-up preservation methods.
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