Enhanced Ventilation Processes on Vacuum Thermal Reduction TiO2 Porous Ceramics for High‐Efficiency Solar‐Driven Interfacial Evaporation

Abstract

The emerging solar‐driven interfacial evaporators have recently garnered significant attention due to their ability to convert solar energy into heat that is confined to the surface water layer, presenting excellent evaporation performance and industrial potential. Nevertheless, current research primarily focuses on optimizing the light absorption, water supply, and thermal management of the evaporator to enhance its evaporation performance. Herein, a novel strategy is proposed to optimize the evaporation performance of the evaporator by enhancing the airflow at its evaporation interface. Black TiO2 porous ceramics obtained through vacuum heat treatment are employed with both high light absorption and strong structural support, displaying an excellent compressive strength of 81.87 MPa and a 419% enhancement in light absorption in the solar spectrum compared to pure TiO2. Evaporators assisted by artificial ventilation and enhanced natural ventilation strategies achieve evaporation rates of 2.052 and 1.587 kg m−2 h−1, respectively, under 1 sun irradiation (1 kW m−2). This represents an increase of 40.4% and 8.5%, respectively, compared to the evaporation rate of the nonassisted evaporator. This work presents a novel approach to optimize the evaporation performance of the solar‐driven interfacial evaporator.