Carbon monoliths from PET wastes for interfacial solar evaporation

•Porous carbon monoliths were synthesized by carbonization of recycled PET.•Carbon monoliths exhibited macropores with microporous walls.•Carbon monoliths exhibited both high water evaporation efficiency and high solar absorption. Solar water evaporation systems based on carbon are emerging technologies for water desalination. In this work, carbon monoliths were obtained from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) wastes. Two different carbon monolith samples were obtained by varying the carbonization parameters. The carbon monoliths have a high solar absorptance due to its porous structure and offers a vapor transport, which facilitate a fast evaporation. The carbon monoliths had different thickness, those ones with 8 mm in thickness presented an enhanced water evaporation rate of 0.99 kg/m2h with a solar evaporation efficiency of 63.5%. Here we show that carbon monoliths obtained from PET wastes are promising materials for interfacial solar evaporation systems.