Synchronizing Efficient Purification of VOCs in Durable Solar Water Evaporation over a Highly Stable Cu/W<sub>18</sub>O<sub>49</sub>@Graphene Material
Liteng Ren, Xiaonan Yang, Xin Sun, Yupeng Yuan
Abstract
Solar-driven clean water production is challenged by VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which pose health risks in distilled water. Herein, we developed a Cu/W 18 O 49 @Graphene photothermal-photocatalytic material addressing VOCs contamination. Plasmonic coupling between Cu and W 18 O 49 enhances light absorption, and 1–2 layers of graphene encapsulation protects oxygen vacancies within W 18 O 49 while facilitating hot electron extraction, effectively mitigating their ultrafast relaxation. Density functional theory calculations revealed enhanced VOCs adsorption on graphene. These synergies address oxygen vacancy decay in W 18 O 49 and provide more active sites for gas–liquid–solid triphase photocatalytic reactions. Integrated with a three-dimensional floating evaporator substrate, the optimized Cu/W 18 O 49 @Graphene material achieved an effective water evaporation rate of 1.41 kg m –2 h –1 (efficiency of 88.6%), exceptional stability (>120 h), and remarkable 99% phenol removal under 1 sun irradiation (1 kW m –2 ). This work provides a promising solution to mitigate VOCs contamination in solar-driven water evaporation.