{"id":112277,"date":"2026-01-26T16:02:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/?p=112277"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:02:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:02:52","slug":"high-performance-solar-evaporator-for-seawater-desalination-turning-seawater-into-drinking-water-via-sunlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/science\/high-performance-solar-evaporator-for-seawater-desalination-turning-seawater-into-drinking-water-via-sunlight\/","title":{"rendered":"High-Performance Solar Evaporator for Seawater Desalination\u2014Turning Seawater into Drinking Water via Sunlight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A research team, affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a new technology that can convert seawater into clean drinking water using only sunlight, without any external power source. This breakthrough could play a crucial role in solving water shortages in developing countries and remote island communities where electricity is often unavailable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Led by Professor Ji-Hyun Jang from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, the team announced the successful development of a ternary oxide-based evaporator capable of efficiently using solar energy to drive evaporation. When placed on seawater, the device heats the water, causing it to evaporate and then condense into fresh drinking water\u2014all without needing electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their experiments showed that a 1-square-meter (1 m\u00b2) setup can produce about 4.1 liters of clean water in just one hour. That is nearly seven times the natural evaporation rate of seawater, making it the fastest oxide-based evaporator reported so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes this possible is a new kind of photothermal material\u2014substances that absorb sunlight and convert it into heat. This material is coated onto the surface of the evaporator, enhancing its ability to turn sunlight into thermal energy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Illustration: unist.ac.kr
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The researchers achieved this by replacing parts of manganese in a corrosion-resistant manganese oxide with copper and chromium, creating a new ternary oxide. By carefully adjusting the material\u2019s composition through a process called bandgap engineering, they made it capable of absorbing almost the entire solar spectrum\u2014from ultraviolet to near-infrared light\u2014covering 97.2% of sunlight. Unlike typical oxide materials that mainly absorb visible light, this new material captures and converts a much broader range of sunlight into heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is a surface temperature that can reach up to 80\u00b0C, significantly higher than previous manganese oxide-based materials, which topped out around 63\u00b0C or 74\u00b0C with copper-manganese oxides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The device\u2019s design also addresses a common challenge in solar desalination: salt buildup. It features an inverted U-shape, with the photothermal coating on the part that absorbs water. The structure includes water-wicking fiber materials and hydrophobic polyester fabric, which help draw water efficiently and allow salt ions to flow away, preventing salt accumulation on the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Jang explained, \u201cWe have fundamentally improved the light absorption range and the photothermal efficiency of oxide materials, which allowed us to develop a high-performance, durable evaporator. Its scalability and stability mean it could be a practical solution to real-world water shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research was published online in Advanced Materials <\/em>on December 16, prior to its official release, and was supported by various grants, including the ERC Project of the Engineering Research Center for Microplastic through Bio\/Chemical engineering Convergence Process, the Brain Pool Program (BP), and the InnoCORE program of the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), as well as the Mid-Career Research Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n