COmposite nanomaterials coupling Photothermal Evaporation and photocatalysis for durable water purification systems
“L’acqua che evapora crede nella reincarnazione”
By F. Caramagna
The research activity, co-funded by the European Union– Next Generation EU, PNRR ‐ missione 4 “istruzione e ricerca” ‐ componente C2 investimento 1.1 “fondo per il programma nazionale di ricerca e progetti di rilevante interesse nazionale (PRIN)” D.D. N. 1409/2022 “BANDO PRIN 2022 PNRR”, is dedicated to the development of water purification systems through next generation solar evaporators, which integrate photothermal elements for better evaporation efficiency and photocatalytic elements for improved water quality and prolonged service life of the device, thanks to a reduced soiling and fouling.
The project, coordinated by prof. Daniela Meroni from Università degli Studi di Milano (Principal Investigator), is carried out in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano (unit manager: prof. Maria Vittoria Diamanti, supported by prof. MariaPia Pedeferri) and Università degli Studi di Trieste (unit manager: prof. Vanni Lughi).
The two-year research activity is structured in the following tasks:
- Development of titanium oxide photocatalytic membranes aimed at purifying water while it evaporates and at reducing the device soiling
- Production of core-shell quantum dots with photothermal behavior to increase the evaporative yield of the device, thanks to a better exploitation of solar energy, and to simultaneously improve photocatalyti efficiency of titanium oxide membranes
- Assembly of a solar evaporator incorporating photocatalytic and photothermal elements
- Evaluation of evaporation and purification efficiency of the assembled device, both with accelerated laboratory tests and in real solar irradiation conditions.