Textile waste derived cellulose based composite aerogel for efficient solar steam generation

Cellulose based aerogels have been deemed as promising candidates for solar steam generation owing to their renewable biopolymer resources and interconnected microporous features. To find an environmentally friendly way to obtain cellulose nanofiber and prepare aerogel-based evaporator is a practical demand. Here, a stable and sustainable cellulose composite aerogel based solar steam generator derived from waste cotton fabrics is reported. The fabricated polyethyleneimine crosslinked carbon nanotubes/cellulose nanofibers (PEI@CNTs/CNFs) aerogel shows a high solar steam generation rate of 1.9 kg m-2 h-1 with the light-to-vapor efficiency of 91.4% under 1 sun illumination. In addition, the evaporator can guarantee sustainable and stable solar steam generation performance after long-term test. Moreover, the solar steam generator can purify a variety of wastewater, e. g. dye wastewater, heavy metal ion wastewater, and seawater. These futures make the designed cellulose based composite aerogel offer an efficient way for solar-driven water purification, regeneration, and desalination. [Display omitted] •A stable and sustainable solar steam generator based on cellulose aerogel was prepared.•To recycle textile waste and reuse them in solar steam generation.•The evaporator shows a fast evaporation rate of 1.9 kg m-2 h-1 with the light-to-vapor efficiency of 91.4% under 1 sun illumination.•Variety of wastewater can be purification through using the evaporator.