The depletion of energy resources poses a major threat to human health and social development, and traditional energy and freshwater resources are facing huge consumption. Generating electricity and freshwater resources through clean and green methods is a promising and viable solution. Hydrovoltaic power generation has the characteristics of convenient process, high efficiency output, and wide range of water sources, and has universal applicability. Photothermal interface evaporation technology is a promising method for preparing fresh water because of its ability to convert clean solar energy into heat energy locally. The coupling of power generation systems in the seawater desalination at the photothermal interface to form a solar steam-hydropower cogeneration system (SSEG) is an emerging method of clean supply of fresh water and electricity.
Recently, the team of Professor Fang Jian and Dr. Sun Zhe of Soochow University used textile materials as the base material to develop a three-dimensional braid that can adjust the speed, height and content of water flow through twisting and weaving technology to design a new SSEG system, and at the same time realize sustainable water volt power generation and fresh water collection, and the two functions of power generation and evaporation are optimized and synergistically promoted (Figure 1). The authors fabricated a CB/PPy-loaded Tencel Skeleton (CPF) using twisting and braiding techniques to construct the SSEG system (Fig. 2). Fiber twisting can control the pore size of the capillary channel between fibers and change the water flow velocity, weaving can make the fibers have different fiber density and distribution and change the water flow content/height, and the continuous, fast and smooth brine circulation in the fiber matrix can promote proton and ion migration and prevent salt blockage. The dual functions of power generation and evaporation are optimized at the same scale and synergistically promote each other. The new SSEG achieves an evaporation rate of 2.38 kg·m-2·h-1 and an output voltage and current of 0.73 V and 0.6 μA under 3.5 wt% brine and 1 standard solar radiation. The research results were recently published in Advanced Functional under the title of "Fibrous solar evaporator with tunable water flow for efficient, self-operating, and sustainable hydroelectricity generation". On Materials, Ge Can, a doctoral student from the School of Textile and Apparel Engineering of Soochow University, and many of them are the first authors of the paper, and Professor Fang Jian and Dr. Sun Zhe of Soochow University are the co-corresponding authors of the paper.
Fig.1 Schematic diagram of the working principle of SSEG and the CPF fiber evaporator array
Figure 2. Processing method and manufacturing and characteristics of CPF fiber evaporator. Original link:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202403608 team introduced
Fang Jian is a distinguished professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Textile and Apparel Engineering, Soochow University. He has long been engaged in the research of functional fiber materials, flexible wearable smart textiles, and high-performance textiles. He was selected into the 15th batch of youth projects of the "Overseas High-level Talent Program", in 2019, he was selected into the "Gusu Innovation Leading Talent" program, and in 2020, he was selected as the "Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Talent" in Jiangsu Province. He is currently the director of the Key Laboratory of Intelligent Textile and Apparel Flexible Devices in the Textile Industry of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, a member of the Youth Working Committee of the China Textile Engineering Society, a youth communication expert of the journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a member of the youth editorial board of Advanced Fiber Materials and eScience. So far, he has published more than 90 articles in domestic and foreign academic journals such as Energy & Environmental Science, Advanced Materials, Nature Communications, Nano Energy, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, etc.
Sun Zhe, master's supervisor, winner of Jiangsu Province Outstanding Postdoctoral Talent Program, received a doctorate degree in engineering from the School of Light Industry Science and Engineering of Sichuan University in June 2021, and joined the School of Textile and Apparel Engineering of Soochow University in the same year; has published more than 20 academic papers, more than 10 SCI articles, and authorized 7 invention patents; presided over 1 general project of the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Provincial Universities, 2 provincial and ministerial open projects, 2 enterprise horizontal projects, and 1 school-level, provincial and ministerial-level education reform project. He is the guest editor of the special issue of the SCI journal Polymers (IF: 5.0) and a member of the youth editorial board of the journal "Printing and Dyeing". Source: Frontiers of Polymer Science