SOLAR STEAM AND WATER TREATMENT

Both fresh water shortage and water pollution are the most pressing issues for our globe, endangering the life of human beings and other living creatures. Desalination and water purification are general practices for addressing these issues, but constantly call for materials and devices with low cost and high efficiency. In this research direction, we are exploring the potential of nature-derived materials for application in water treatment. Natural wood presents rich mesostructures such as vessels and tracheids for water and nutrient conveyance in living trees, and will be employed in our research for designing water treatment devices. As one application, highly efficient solar steam generation device will be designed by integrating the solar energy absorption, thermal insulation, and water transport performance in natural wood, which can be used for desalination to obtain fresh water. In addition, the rich mesostructures and abundant functional groups of wood will be explored for the design of a wood membrane with catalytic properties, which will be used for water pollutant degradation. Wood cells are naturally designed for water transport, and therefore, it is feasible to utilize these structures for water treatment.

Recent Papers:

• Zhu, M.; Li, Y.; Chen, G.; Jiang, F.; Yang, Z.; Luo, X.; Wang, Y.; Lacey, S.D.; Dai, J.; Wang, C.; Jia, C.; Wan, J.; Yao, Y.; Gong, A.; Yang, B.; Yu Z.; Das, S.; Hu, L.* Tree-Inspired Design for High-Efficiency Water Extraction. Adv. Mater. 2017, 1704107.

• Chen, F.; Gong, A.; Zhu, M.; Chen, G.; Lacey, S.D.; Jiang, F.; Li, Y.; Wang, Y.; Dai, J.; Yao, Y.; Song, J.; Liu, B.; Fu, K.; Das, S.; Hu, L.* Mesoporous, Three-Dimensional Wood Membrane Decorated with Nanoparticles for Highly Efficient Water Treatment. ACS Nano 2017, 11(4), 4275-4282.

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