Graphene oxide-based evaporator with one-dimensional water transport enabling high-efficiency solar desalination

A jellyfish-like solar steam generator is prepared using the vertical 3D printing, which can fast, automatically and precisely manufacture sophisticated components. The integrated evaporator consists of the aligned GO pillars, CB/GO composite layer and expanded polystyrene (EPS) matrix. The evaporator has a high broadband high absorption within a wide wavelength, low thermal conductivity and fast water transport, which displays an impressive energy conversion efficiency of 87.5% under one-sun illumination (1 kW cm−2) and superior solar desalination performance. The ion concentrations (Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions) of the seawater (Dead Sea and Chesapeake Bay) after purification are far below the ion concentration limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) for drinking water.226