Polypyrrole‐Reinforced N,S‐Doping Graphene Foam for Efficient Solar Purification of Wastewater
Lifen Su, Yuying Ning, Ziqiang Ma, Yuhao Zhang, Chuanlei Liu, Youli Zhang, Lei Miao, Jianhua Zhou, Bin Wu, Jiasheng Qian
Abstract
Solar vapor generation is a sustainable and cost‐effective approach to addressing the issue of water shortage. However, the challenges of solar steam generation still exist for achieving a high evaporation efficiency combined with long‐term stability in the wastewater containing heavy metal ions and wide degrees of acidity and alkalinity (pH = 1–14). Herein, polypyrrole (PPy) loading on the N,S‐doped graphene oxide (N,S‐GO) foam is used for high‐efficiency solar evaporation of treating wastewater. With the advantages of excellent broadband solar absorption ( >97%), extremely low emissivity (0.70), and outstanding hydrophilicity, the N,S‐GO/PPy foam achieves a high evaporation efficiency of 90.5% under 1 sun illumination. More notably, the N,S‐GO/PPy foam has strong adsorption of heavy metal ions (Fe 3+ , Cu 2+ , and Cr 6+ ) for treating wastewater synchronously evaporates at higher efficiencies of 94.7–98.4%. Interestingly, the high‐toxicity Cr 6+ can be reduced to low‐toxicity Cr 3+ effectively by the synergistic effect of N,S‐GO and PPy. In addition, the N,S‐GO foam shows a better long‐term resistance of acidity and alkalinity for 45 days. A new insight is offered into high‐efficiency solar evaporation for treating wastewater and water purification.