Fabrication of ZrC/PVA-co-PE NF composite membranes with photo-thermal conversion for solar desalination

Abstract ZrC/PVA- co -PE nanofiber (NF) composite membranes with excellent photo-thermal conversion property was fabricated by compounding the zirconium carbide (ZrC) nanoparticles with PVA- co -PE NFs. The size distribution of ZrC nanoparticles, the morphologies and structures of NF composite membranes were characterized by Laser particle size analyzer and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that the ZrC nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 25 nm to 125 nm were uniformly dispersed in NF composite membranes. Furthermore, the thermal behaviors of ZrC/PVA- co -PE NF composite membranes with different ratios of ZrC nanoparticles were systematically analyzed. Results show that the ZrC/PVA- co -PE NF composite membranes possess excellent photo-thermal conversion property (temperature under infrared lamp: 133.4 °C) and remarkable evaporation rates (15.6 km . m −2 . h −1 ) under xenon lamp, which further proved that the ZrC/PVA- co -PE NF composite membranes have broad prospects in the field of solar seawater desalination.