PEGylated Self-Growth MoS2 on a Cotton Cloth Substrate for High-Efficiency Solar Energy Utilization

Solar steam generation, utilizing abundant solar energy and floating photothermal materials, has been considered as one of the most sustainable, efficient ways to solve the problem of water shortage. Here, a new system for solar steam generation is fabricated based on a PEGylated MoS2-cotton cloth (PMoS2-CC). 80.5–90 ± 3.5% of high-efficiency solar steam generation is achieved under a light density of 1–5 kW m–2 because of the good gas permeability of CC and the hydrophilic property of PMoS2-CC. The self-growth PMoS2-CC provides good photothermal performances in pure water and saline water. The water evaporation rate with PMoS2-CC keeps a stable value after a long-time illumination (4 h) and 32 times cycle tests. Our result provides a way to prepare pure water in the applications for alleviating a scarcity of drinking water.