Associate Professor Ma Yali from the School of Chemical Engineering Makes Progress in Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination

In recent years, solar-driven interfacial evaporation technology has emerged as a crucial strategic direction for addressing global freshwater scarcity, thanks to its advantages such as zero energy consumption and low carbon emissions. However, traditional photothermal materials generally suffer from bottlenecks including a narrow solar light absorption range, poor salt tolerance, and high evaporation enthalpy, which severely restrict long-term stable water production in outdoor environments. To tackle these challenges, Associate Professor Ma Yali from the School of Chemical Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, and her collaborators innovatively composite ionic covalent organic frameworks (i-COFs) with cotton fabrics, successfully developing a flexible evaporator that integrates full-spectrum light harvesting, superhydrophilic channels, and a low evaporation energy barrier. Under standard solar illumination of 1 kW·m⁻², this evaporator achieves an ultra-high evaporation rate of 1.79 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ and a light-to-vapor conversion efficiency of up to 84.28%. When continuously operating in simulated seawater for 6 hours, the removal rates of major ions such as Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ exceed 99.7%, and the quality of the produced water fully meets the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water standards.

Figures of the evaporator’s light absorption, contact angle, and photothermal performance

On July 17, the relevant research results were published online in Chemical Engineering Journal (Impact Factor: 13.2) under the title “Fiber fabric evaporators based on ionic COFs for solar interfacial evaporation and seawater desalination”. Associate Professor Ma Yali serves as the co-corresponding author of the paper.

Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.166125