Multifunctional Au/Ti₃C₂ Photothermal Membrane with Antibacterial Ability for Stable and Efficient Solar Water Purification under the Full Spectrum

Abstract

Using solar energy to generate steam is a clean and sustainable approach to address the problem of water shortage, for its potential in harvesting solar energy for various applications such as drinking water purification and sterilization. Herein, we describe a new strategy for the construction of a Au/Ti3C2 photothermal membrane, which can be used as a superior interface photothermal conversion material to achieve efficient evaporation and antibacterial properties under solar light irradiation. The Au/Ti3C2 photothermal membrane has a unique 2D layer overlap structure with a surface plasmon resonance effect and excellent solar light-to-heat conversion capability. A photothermal evaporation experiment revealed that the water evaporation rate and evaporation efficiency of the Au/Ti3C2 photothermal membrane reached 2.66 kg m–2 h–1 and 83.63%, respectively. Excitingly, the Au/Ti3C2 photothermal membrane also exhibited good photothermal antibacterial properties, that is, it can completely inactivate 6.7 log10 cfu mL–1 Escherichia coli K-12 within 20 min and 7.1 log10 cfu mL–1 Spingopyxis sp. BM1-1 within 10 min. Additionally, the Au/Ti3C2 photothermal membrane had good stability during photothermal evaporation. The multifunctional Au/Ti3C2 photothermal membrane generating steam by effectively collecting solar energy could be broadly applied in solar water purification.