Event date:
Jan 16 2025 11:00 am

Recent Advancements in Hybrid Interfacial Solar Evaporation: from Fundamental Research to Applications

Speaker(s)
Dr. Muhammad Sultan Irshad, Assistant Professor at School of New Energy and Electrical Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan China
Venue
Dean’s Smart Lab, 4th floor SBASSE Building
Abstract
Muhammad Sultan Irshad received his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Hubei University, China, in 2022 under the Fully Funded Chinese Government Scholarship Council. He has been awarded the “Most Excellent Ph.D. Graduation Award” and “Excellent Ph.D. Dissertation Award (2022)”. Then he engaged in postdoctoral research at Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano Optomechatronics Engineering, College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen. He has been awarded the Shenzhen 3rd Excellent Science Technology 2023 Academic Paper. His research interests focus on the application of emerging photothermal materials, the efficient utilization of energy flow, their expanded applicability, and synergistic effects to address the water-fuel-energy crisis, and has published more than 70 SCI papers as first, first equal, corresponding author, and co-author in authoritative journals such as Adv. Funct. Mater., Chem. Eng. J., Small, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Carbon, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces etc., which have been cited more than 1,000 times by SCI. His work includes Best of Advanced 2023, the top ten most cited paper.

Water is essential to life and progress. The World Health Organization reports that 3.2 billion people worldwide face water scarcity, while >420 billion m3 of wastewater is released into rivers, lakes, and oceans annually, contaminating 5.5 trillion m3 of freshwater. Therefore, based on the concept of seawater desalination, the current emerging solar water purification technology primarily employs clean renewable solar as the primary energy input channel and uses interfacial photothermal conversion materials to separate water and impurities via evaporation, which has the benefits of low energy loss and excellent efficiency when compared with other water purification technologies. Hybrid Interfacial Solar Evaporation presents a promising solution to address the pressing challenges of interfacial evaporation technology e.g. fundamental, and operational issues. By leveraging the principles of interfacial engineering, this technology optimizes the conversion of solar radiation into thermal energy for water evaporation, waste heat recovery into thermoelectricity, and photothermal-induced water splitting, as illustrated in Figure 1. From fundamental studies elucidating the underlying mechanisms to scalable prototypes tailored for real-world implementation, this holistic approach offers a pathway toward sustainable water desalination, energy generation, and fuel production2-5. As we navigate toward a more sustainable future, hybrid interfacial solar evaporation stands as a beacon of hope, bridging the gap between scientific inquiry and tangible solutions to global challenges.

Figure 1. Hybrid interfacial solar evaporator to address effectively water-fuel-energy generation1.

 

Keywords: Solar energy; Hybrid; Interfacial evaporation; Water-fuel-energy-crisis


References:
1.    Irshad, Muhammad Sultan, et al. "Advances of 2D‐Enabled Photothermal Materials in Hybrid Solar‐Driven Interfacial Evaporation Systems toward Water‐Fuel‐Energy Crisis." Advanced Functional Materials 33.51 (2023): 2304936.
2.    Arshad, N., Irshad, M.S. et al. Exploring perovskite oxide for advancing salt-resistant photothermal membranes and reliable thermoelectric generators. Chem. Eng. J. 475, 146200 (2023).