image: Schematic of the cross section of a solar thermal membrane distillation device under focused illumination. Saline feed and purified distillate flow are on the top and bottom, respectively, of a carbon black-coated PVDF membrane in a countercurrent configuration. The illuminated area is covered with a lens array to concentrate the incident light on the coated membrane surface. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Pratiksha D. Dongare.
A study finds that evaporation, which is key to thermal desalination of water, is exponentially dependent on temperature, and focusing sunlight onto a photothermally active membrane via lenses increases distilled water flux through the membrane by more than 50%, demonstrating the utility of exploiting focused sunlight in a wide range of thermally and optically driven processes.
Article #19-05311: "Solar thermal desalination as a nonlinear optical process," by Pratiksha Dongare, Alessandro Alabastri, Oara Neumann, Peter Nordlander, and Naomi J. Halas.
MEDIA CONTACT: Naomi J. Halas, Rice University, Houston, TX; tel: 713-348-5611; e-mail: halas@rice.edu
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Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences