TY - JOUR
T1 - Quick-Release Antifouling Hydrogels for Solar-Driven Water Purification
AU - Xu, Xiaohui
AU - Guillomaitre, Néhémie
AU - Christie, Kofi S.S.
AU - Bay, R. Ko̅nane
AU - Bizmark, Navid
AU - Datta, Sujit S.
AU - Ren, Zhiyong Jason
AU - Priestley, Rodney D.
N1 - Funding Information:
X.X., K.S.S.C., and R.K.B. acknowledge support from Princeton University through the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, N.G. acknowledges support from the National GEM Consortium Fellowship, and N.B. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Princeton Center for Complex Materials Postdoctoral Fellowship. We acknowledge the support of the NSF MRSEC (DMR-1420541 and 2011750), the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund at Princeton University, the Project X fund, and the Princeton Catalysis Initiative. We thank Howard Stone (Princeton University) for helpful discussion during the preparation of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Hydrogels are promising soft materials for energy and environmental applications, including sustainable and off-grid water purification and harvesting. A current impediment to technology translation is the low water production rate well below daily human demand. To overcome this challenge, we designed a rapid-response, antifouling, loofah-inspired solar absorber gel (LSAG) capable of producing potable water from various contaminated sources at a rate of ∼26 kg m-2 h-1, which is sufficient to meet daily water demand. The LSAG─produced at room temperature via aqueous processing using an ethylene glycol (EG)-water mixture─uniquely integrates the attributes of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm), polydopamine (PDA), and poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (PSBMA) to enable off-grid water purification with enhanced photothermal response and the capacity to prevent oil fouling and biofouling. The use of the EG-water mixture was critical to forming the loofah-like structure with enhanced water transport. Remarkably, under sunlight irradiations of 1 and 0.5 sun, the LSAG required only 10 and 20 min to release ∼70% of its stored liquid water, respectively. Equally important, we demonstrate the ability of LSAG to purify water from various harmful sources, including those containing small molecules, oils, metals, and microplastics.
AB - Hydrogels are promising soft materials for energy and environmental applications, including sustainable and off-grid water purification and harvesting. A current impediment to technology translation is the low water production rate well below daily human demand. To overcome this challenge, we designed a rapid-response, antifouling, loofah-inspired solar absorber gel (LSAG) capable of producing potable water from various contaminated sources at a rate of ∼26 kg m-2 h-1, which is sufficient to meet daily water demand. The LSAG─produced at room temperature via aqueous processing using an ethylene glycol (EG)-water mixture─uniquely integrates the attributes of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm), polydopamine (PDA), and poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (PSBMA) to enable off-grid water purification with enhanced photothermal response and the capacity to prevent oil fouling and biofouling. The use of the EG-water mixture was critical to forming the loofah-like structure with enhanced water transport. Remarkably, under sunlight irradiations of 1 and 0.5 sun, the LSAG required only 10 and 20 min to release ∼70% of its stored liquid water, respectively. Equally important, we demonstrate the ability of LSAG to purify water from various harmful sources, including those containing small molecules, oils, metals, and microplastics.
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U2 - 10.1021/acscentsci.2c01245
DO - 10.1021/acscentsci.2c01245
M3 - Article
C2 - 36844496
AN - SCOPUS:85147809736
SN - 2374-7943
JO - ACS Central Science
JF - ACS Central Science
ER -