Anisotropic Evaporator with a T-Shape Design for High-Performance Solar-Driven Zero-Liquid Discharge

Solar-driven evaporation is regarded as a sustainable wastewater treatment strategy for clean water recovery and salt condensation. However, achieving both high evaporation rate and long-term stability remain challenging due to poor thermal management and rapid salt accumulation and blocking. Here, a T-shape solar-driven evaporator, composed of a surface-carbonized longitudinal wood membrane (C-L-wood) is demonstrated as the top "-" for solar harvesting/vapor generation/salt collection and another piece of natural L-wood as the support for brine transporting and thermally insulating. The horizontally aligned micro-channels of C-L-wood have a low perpendicular thermal conductivity and can effectively localize the thermal energy for rapid evaporation. Meanwhile, the brine is guided to transport from the support L-wood to the centerline of the top evaporator and then toward the double edge ("-"), during which clean water is evaporated and salt is crystallized at the edge. The T-shape evaporator demonstrates a high evaporation rate of 2.43 kg m(-2) h(-1) under 1 sun irradiation, and is stable for 7 days of the outdoor operation, which simultaneously realizes clean water evaporation and salt collection (including Cu2+, CrO42-, Co2+), and achieves zero-liquid discharge. Therefore, the T-shape design provides an effective strategy for high performance wastewater treatment.