Desalination 456 (2019) 85–96

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Desalination
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal

Ultra-low cost cotton based solar evaporation device for seawater T

desalination and waste water purification to produce drinkable water
Higgins M. Wilson, Shakeelur Rahman A.R., Ankita E. Parab, Neetu Jha
⁎

Department of Physics, Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai, N.P. Marg, Mumbai 400019, India

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

Steam generation using solar energy has been impractical for years ascribable to its low efficiency. In recent years, interfacial heating of water has been touted as the
practical solution to harvest large scale steam generation. In this paper, we present an extremely low cost candle soot coated cotton as an ideal floating absorber to
generate highly efficient steam using the concept of interfacial solar heating. The floating absorber was synthesized from traditional household materials and a
photothermal efficiency of 80% was achieved under 1 sun illumination. In addition, the novel floating absorber is easy to fabricate as it requires no sophisticated
laboratory instruments or expertise. The floating absorber was tested for solar desalination of actual sea water using a homemade solar still where the purified water
had salinity levels comparable to other drinking water levels like tap water, packaged drinking water and so on. In addition to the salinity levels of water, the purified
water obtained from water purification of sewage was tested for bacteria colonies and no colony forming units (CFU) were present which again suggests the obtained
purified water being drinkable. The results of this work should motivate further research in simplistic, low cost photothermal materials and its application in the
production of clean drinkable water.

1. Introduction
Decontamination and recycling of waste water is being widely touted
as a pragmatic solution to the mounting global water scarcity. With rising
global population, sustainable water purification techniques need to be
developed to counter the growing demand for clean water [1]. One of the
factors which needs to be considered while developing these techniques
is the energy source. An ideal energy source in this regard would be solar
energy considering its abundance and cleanness [2,3]. Solar driven water
purification techniques which utilize evaporation-condensation me-
chanism to purify contaminated water have been around since ancient
times but its application on a realistic scale has been hindered by its
meagre light to heat conversion efficiency [4,5].
In the past few decades, the poor photothermal efficiency in solar sys-
tems was partially amended with the addition of selective absorption
coatings on its surface [6]. The selective absorbers help in the enhanced

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: nr.jha@ictmumbai.edu.in (N. Jha).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2019.01.017
Received 29 August 2018; Received in revised form 16 January 2019; Accepted 16 January 2019
0011-9164/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.
H.M. Wilson et al. Desalination 456 (2019) 85–96

absorption of incoming solar illumination but the inept process of heat

transfer from the coatings surface to water decreases its overall photo-
thermal efficiency. In recent years, widespread research has been carried
out to replace these selective coatings with plasmonic nanoparticles [7,8]. In
these systems, metallic nanoparticles like Au owing to their excellent plas-
monic properties were dispersed in the working fluid (nanofluid based
systems) [9,10]. These metallic nanoparticles were tuned such that their
resonant frequencies matched the frequency of the incoming light and
hence obtain maximum optical absorption. But the limitations of these
nanoparticles like limited bandwidth, high cost and intricate synthesis
procedures makes it difficult to be realized in large scale prototypes. These
limitations were later overcome using carbon based materials but their
overall efficiencies were very low especially under 1 sun illumination [11].
The detriments in nanofluid based solar steam generation were
negated with pioneering works in floating absorber based solar steam
generation techniques [12]. In this system, the nanofluids are replaced
by floating absorbers. These floating absorbers have characteristics
such as broadband absorbance, high porosity and low thermal con-
ductivity which promote interfacial heating of water. Various types of
floating absorbers have been discovered lately with very high light to
heat conversion efficiencies [13–37]. Among these, few absorbers have
been reported to have very high photothermal efficiencies
[5,12,24,28,32,35,36,38–46]. But absorbers such as carbonized wood,
plasmonic wood, vertically aligned carbon nanotube array films, F-CNT
wood, graphene aerogel, graphene oxide wood, carbon fabric, gold
metasurface on filter paper, carbonized mushroom, carbonized poplar
wood and so on have 75% or more efficiencies only at incident in-
tensities more than 1 sun [12,13,16,20,21,23,24,34–36,47–49]. This is
a major drawback when designing solar stills as intensities > 1 sun
will require solar concentrators which affects scalability. Meanwhile
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of synthesis of candle soot coated cotton for solar
absorbers with photothermal efficiencies > 75% under 1 sun illumi-
steam generation.
nation have also been reported. 3D printed jelly fish structure with
graphene oxide and carbon black, hierarchical graphene foam, reduced
graphene oxide on filter paper, copper oxide nanowires and graph- homemade technique (Fig. 1). Paraffin wax candle was ignited and
diyne, porous graphene, graphene oxide aerogels and carbon nano- allowed to burn. A stainless steel plate was kept on top of the flame and
tubes, carbon nanotubes on silica, Mxene Ti3C2 with polyvinylidene soot was allowed to collect on it. The collected soot was scrapped off
fluoride, graphene nanosheets, graphene oxide on polystyrene foam, the vessel and stored for further experimentation. The next step in-
reduced graphene oxide on airlaid paper and silica floaters, 2D water volves the coating of a cotton cloth with candle soot. A cotton cloth
path based graphene oxide films on cellulose fibres and black paper on obtained from 100% cotton recycled t-shirt was cut into circles of
polystyrene foams have all been reported to have excellent 1 sun effi- diameter 4 cm. The cut pieces were then dipped into a solution made of
ciencies of values > 80% [27,30,38–41,44,45,50]. It's noteworthy that 1 mg/mL concentration of candle soot in ethanol (C2H5OH > 99%).
most of these absorbers are based on graphene oxide, graphene or The coated pieces were then allowed to dry naturally in room tem-
graphdiyne. Even though these graphene based materials have optimal perature. Since coated cotton pieces don't float above water, poly-
physical and chemical properties, its production on a large scale is vinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a hydrophobic polymer was also added to
cumbersome, expensive and involves the usage of toxic chemicals [51]. the candle soot solution before dip coating.
In this work, we present a one of a kind floating photothermal ab-
sorber (candle soot coated cotton on polystyrene foam) designed using 2.2. Modification of coated cotton cloth absorber
ultra low cost household materials such as recycled cotton, candle soot
and polystyrene foam for high efficiency solar steam generation and its The next stage is to modify the cotton cloth using a floating support
application in seawater desalination and water purification. This un- (Fig 2). For this, polystyrene foams were cut into small cylinders of
ique absorber was also fabricated without any sophisticated laboratory diameter 4 cm and height 2 cm. Cotton piece enough to wrap around
chemicals or equipment. The photothermal absorber was also tested for the polystyrene foam was cut from a recycled 100% cotton t-shirt. The
applications in sea-water desalination and waste water purification. cotton piece was attached to the polystyrene foam using glue. The
With the aid of a facile homemade solar still, the floating absorber was subsequent step involves the coating of candle soot on the cotton cloth.
able to remove the salinity of sea water and bacteria from sewage to For this, 20 mg of collected soot was added into 20 mL ethanol and
produce potable water. Thus, our work provides a floating absorber sonicated for an hour. The sonicated solution was then coated on top of
having unique characteristics such as ultra-low cost, high photothermal the floating support using a small painting brush. The coated floating
efficiency, scalability, consistency and primarily having simplistic de- support was then allowed to dry under room temperature before ex-
sign for interfacial solar steam generation applications. perimentation.

2. Experimental 2.3. Characterization

2.1. Synthesis of candle soot coated cotton cloth and its modification on The morphology of soot particles were visualized using scanning
polystyrene foam electron microscopy (SEM) (Inspect 250 FESEM). Transmission electron
microscopy (Philips, CM200 TEM) was used to further envision in detail
In the initial step, candle soot was synthesized using a facile the structure of the soot particles. The XRD diffraction patterns of

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H.M. Wilson et al.
Fig. 2. Schematic representation of modification of coated cotton to prevent heat loss.
candle soot was analyzed using X-ray diffraction (Bruker D8 advanced)
with CuKα radiation (k = 1.54 Å) with 2θ range of 5° to 60°. XPS was
carried out using Axis supra kratos analytical UK with monochromatic
Al k-alpha (75 W). For optical characterization of evaporation devices,
absorption and reflectance spectra of the samples were measured using
Jasco V-770 spectrophotometer equipped with integrating sphere. The
measurements were carried in the wavelength range 250–2500 nm.
2.4. Evaporation performance evaluation
The evaporation performances of different absorbers were evaluated
using a AAA solar simulator (PET 50AAA). The sponges were kept in an
acrylic vessel of diameter 4 cm filled with water. The setup was kept on
a weighing balance (A110C, Atom, India) and illuminated using the
solar simulator. Under constant illumination, the weight loss of water
per unit time were measured for each absorber and compared with bare
DI water. The thermal conditions of the sponges were measured using
an IR thermal camera (FLIR ONE, Flir Systems, USA) and k type ther-
mocouples. The k type thermocouples were placed at specific distances
of the vessel to measure the water temperature at those distances. All
experiments were carried out under temperature of 25 °C.
2.5. Study of water desalination
Water desalination studies were performed under natural sunlight.
A homemade prototype was designed specifically for this purpose
(Fig. 3). A trapezoidal tin box with separated compartments and cov-
ered with glass window top was filled with seawater obtained from the
Indian ocean. The floating absorbers were allowed to float on top of the
seawater inside the trapezoidal box and the whole setup was kept in the
sun. The condensed vapor samples were collected and stored for further
analysis.
Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP
OES) analysis was used to measure the concentration of different ions
(Ca2+, Na+, K+ and Mg2+) in initial sea water and condensed samples.
For reference other water samples such as tap water, borewell water,
cooler water, packaged drinking water, deionized water and distilled
water were also analyzed simultaneously. For ICP-OES analysis, each
sample was diluted such that the concentration of ions was below
1 ppm. The ICP-OES testing was done using a calibrated iCAP6300Duo
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Desalination 456 (2019) 85–96
ICP system.
2.6. Chemical and microbial estimation
2.6.1. Methodology
In present work, household sewage before and after purification was
studied. For microbial estimation, we used a homemade solar still for
generation of steam and separated collection of purified water.
Precautions were taken to carry out the procedure in aseptic conditions.
Treated water was later collected in sterile glass bottle and used im-
mediately for the enumeration of bacterial colonies.
2.6.2. Enumeration of microbial colonies
Sterilization of all vessels and solutions used was done in an auto-
clave at 121 °C for 20 min before the experiment. Nutrient agar was
used as a solid medium for the growth of microorganisms. Serial dilu-
tions of wastewater and treated water were made and surface plating
was done in sterile nutrient agar medium. The inoculated plates were
incubated at 37 °C for a day. The bacterial colonies were later en-
umerated and colony forming unit (CFU) was calculated.
2.6.3. Chemical estimation
The amount of sulphate, phosphate and nitrate was calculated.
Analysis of water samples was performed with respect to standard
methods used in waste water testing.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Material structure design and characterization
In floating absorber based solar steam generation, the floating ab-
sorber absorbs incoming solar illumination and converts it into heat by
radiation less transitions and the heat causes the nearby water mole-
cules at the air-water interface to evaporate and form steam [12]
(Fig. 4).
Since the formation of steam with a floating absorber is an in-
stantaneous process, the efficiency of solar steam generation of the
floating absorber will depend on the rate of capillary action of under-
lying bulk water towards the air-water interface. A logical approach to
obtain adequate capillary action of water would be to incorporate a
H.M. Wilson et al.
Fig. 3. a) Schematic diagram and b) digital photograph of homemade solar still for seawater desalination.
Fig. 4. Schematic representation of floating absorber based solar driven steam
generation.
hydrophilic material in the floating absorber design which would wick
the water towards the surface. Therefore, we adopted cotton as the
basis of our floating absorber. Cotton is also one of the most hydrophilic
materials known to man [52]. Other advantages of cotton which sup-
ports its usage in floating absorber design include its low thermal
conductivity and porosity [53]. Moreover, cotton is abundant and most
importantly low cost which helps in large scale production.
Even though cotton has its advantages, it has a very high reflectivity
of incident light and reflects about ~60% incoming radiations in the
250–2500 nm wavelength range (Fig. S1). Since the evaporation of
water involves absorption of solar irradiation which lie primarily in
visible and NIR range of electromagnetic spectra, it is a necessity to
improve the optical absorption and reduce the reflectivity of cotton. It
has been previously reported that most carbon based materials have
broadband absorption and thus can be used for efficient broadband
absorption of solar illumination [20,54,55]. Among different carbon
materials, candle soot has gained considerable interest due to its ex-
tremely low cost and facile synthesis procedure [56]. As explained in
the Experimental section, candle soot was synthesized by simple at-
mospheric combustion of paraffin wax candles (Fig. 5a).
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The collection of soot is vital as different areas of the flame generate
soot particles of varying characteristics [57]. Primarily, candle soot
particles are hydrophobic but soot particles collected away from the
flame tend to be hydrophilic in nature. For this experiment, hydro-
phobic candle soot particles were collected as hydrophilic particles tend
to disperse when in contact with water. The burning of candle wax
flame is essentially a thermal decomposition process in which the flame
breaks down to form small airborne thermolytic particles [58]. Fig. 5b
shows the SEM images of the collected candle soot. The morphology
shows a non uniform formation of agglomerated spherical carbon
particles which are connected due to weak van der Waals force of at-
traction and whose sizes are in the range of 30–50 nm in diameter as
shown in Fig. 5c [59]. The Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED)
pattern demonstrates two diffraction rings which can be correlated to
(002) and (111) planes of soot nano spheres (Fig. 5c (inset)) [60].
X ray diffraction (XRD) was used to further understand the mor-
phology of the soot particles as shown in Fig. 6a. Diffraction peaks at
24.9° and 43.04° were observed which correspond to (002) graphite and
(111) diamond phase in soot. The results are similar to previous reports
[61,62]. From the SAED and XRD pattern, it can be inferred that soot
particles are mainly amorphous with very little crystallinity. Photo-
electron spectroscopy (XPS) was performed to evaluate the composition
of candle soot particles. Fig. 6b shows the survey scan of candle soot
particles. The sharp high intensity peak is carbon (C1s) which is 95% in
total atomic composition and the other low intensity peak is oxygen
(O1s) at 5%. This implies that candle soot is mainly made up of carbon
and has no other organic contaminants originating from paraffin wax in
them. Fig. 6c shows the detailed C1s peak of candle soot. The C1s peak
can be deconvoluted into three peaks at 284.8 eV, 285.7 eV and
286.3 eV. These peaks correspond to sp2 hybridized graphitic C]C, sp3
hybridized CeC and CeO bonds respectively [63]. Raman spectra
(Fig. 6d) were used to verify the structure of candle soot. The two peaks
were observed at 1320 cm−1 (D band) and 1590 cm−1 (G band). The G
band affirms the presence of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG)
and denote E2g mode of graphite [62,63]. The presence of D band
generally suggests disorder and indicates amorphous carbon [62]. The
D band also denote A1g mode of disorientated graphite. The extent of
disorder can be evaluated using the ID/IG ratio with disorderity in-
creasing with increase in the ratio. A high ID/IG value of 1.87 was ob-
tained in candle soot which suggests high disorderity in the material
[62].
The candle soot obtained was coated onto the cotton cloth using the
dip coating method as described in the Experimental section. As ex-
pected the addition of candle soot increased the overall light absorption
of cotton in broadband wavelength range (Fig. S2). The deposition of
the candle soot was further investigated with SEM images of cotton
cloth and coated cotton cloth as shown in Fig. S3. As depicted in Fig.
S3a–d, the lower magnification images of cotton cloths do not show the
H.M. Wilson et al. Desalination 456 (2019) 85–96

Fig. 5. a) Optical images describing the process of collection of candle soot. b) Scanning electron microscopic (SEM). c) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
image with SAED pattern (inset).

Fig. 6. a) X ray diffraction (XRD) pattern. b) Survey scan. c) C1s spectra. d) Raman spectra of candle soot powder.

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H.M. Wilson et al.
deposition of candle soot on the fibres of the cotton cloth clearly. But
the higher magnification images (Fig. S3e & f) show distinct deposition
of soot particles on the walls of the fibres. In Fig. S3e the fibres of cotton
cloth are smooth whereas the fibres in Fig. S3f are rough with ag-
glomeration of soot on it. It is to be noted that the deposition of candle
soot on the fibres of cotton is irregular and the soot particles are at-
tached to the walls of the cotton because of van der Waals attraction
[56].
3.2. Water evaporation performance evaluation of cotton cloth and coated
cotton cloth
The water evaporation performance was performed as shown in Fig.
S4. The coated cloth was placed directly above water to induce inter-
facial evaporation. The mass losses of water were measured as a func-
tion of time (Fig. 7a).
For comparison, the water evaporation rates using different cloths
were compared with bare water under similar conditions. In 1 sun, the
rate of evaporation of water using coated cotton cloth is
0.95 kg m−2 h−1. In contrast, the water evaporation rates using bare
cotton and water are 0.44 kg m−2 h−1and 0.43 kg m−2 h−1 respec-
tively. The evaporation rate of coated cloth is almost 2.1 times com-
pared to bare water. From the evaporation rates it is clear that coating
of candle soot particles on cloth enhances solar driven steam genera-
tion. The light to heat conversion efficiency/photothermal efficiency is
Fig. 7. a) The water evaporation performance of different evaporation systems. b) Evaporation performance evaluation of modified evaporation systems under 1 sun.
c) The cyclic stability of modified coated cotton. d) Comparison of photothermal efficiencies of each evaporation systems.
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an important factor to measure the performance of the absorber. The
light to heat conversion efficiency (έ) can be calculated using the fol-
lowing equation [20]:
=m hLV /I
where ṁ, hLV and I are steady state evaporation rate, total heat en-
thalpy and incident light intensity. Using the above equation, the
photothermal efficiency of coated cotton cloth under 1 sun illumination
was calculated to be 62.8% with cotton and water having photothermal
efficiencies of 27.33% and 26.6% respectively. Hence from the effi-
ciency values and evaporation rates, we can state that the interfacial
heating of water is much more effective than traditional bulk heating of
water in solar driven water evaporation.
3.3. Modification of coated cotton cloth for improved vapor generation
performance
Localizing heat at the air-water interface is essential to obtain ex-
cellent photothermal efficiencies. For effective heat localization, the
heat losses transmitted away from the hot spot should be kept to the
minimum. Few literatures have lately theorized that by minimizing
conduction losses of heat towards underlying bulk water, high eva-
poration rates of water can be achieved [27,30,41]. Li et al. demon-
strated this notion by varying thickness and temperature differences of
the receiver. Conduction losses as high as 75% were estimated and they
H.M. Wilson et al.
Fig. 8. a & b are the thermal images of bare water under 1 sun illumination in 0 min and 30 min respectively. c & d are the thermal images of coated cotton based
evaporation system in 30 min. e & f demonstrate the increase in temperature of bulk water during the test in bare water system and coated cotton system respectively.
provided a 2D water path to minimize these losses [30]. The application
of 2D water path substantially increased the efficiency from 50% to
80% under 1 sun illumination. Wang et al. used a silicon floater along
with paper membranes to prevent conduction loss of water [41]. They
projected conduction losses of about 56% in their receiver without si-
licon floaters. Liu et al. reiterated this fact about conduction losses and
used EPS foam to isolate the heat localization surface from the bulk
fluid [27]. Since conduction losses affects the photo thermal efficiency
significantly, we modified our candle soot coated cotton cloth with
polystyrene foam which has thermal conductivity of ~0.04 W m−1 K−1
as shown in Fig. 2 [27].
The design of floating absorber has been described in detail in the
Experimental section (Fig. 2). Apart from its extremely low thermal
conductivity, polystyrene foam is rigid and non-porous which prevents
direct contact of coated cotton cloth with underlying bulk water. The
foam also floats due to its extremely low density; is readily available
and most notably low cost which makes it idyllic as a thermal insulator.
But for sustained evaporation, water should be continuously supplied to
air-water interface. This was therefore realized by wrapping the candle
soot coated cloth around the polystyrene foam. The hydrophilic un-
coated cotton wrapped around the foam absorbs the underlying water
and the absorbed water gets transported to the coated surface at the top
through the edges (Fig. S5). These steps help in the prevention of the
drying out of the top surface of the absorber during the evaporation
process. With this method, we successfully isolate the underlying fluid
from the heat generated at the top surface and thus inhibit conduction
loss of heat. The evaporation performance of the modified floating
absorber was now evaluated under 1 sun illumination. Fig. 7b shows
the evaporation rates of each modified evaporation systems. The steady
state evaporation rates were calculated by taking the slopes of the
graph and the addition of polystyrene foam displayed significant in-
crease in their performances. With polystyrene foam, the water eva-
poration rate of candle soot coated cotton increased to
~1.19 kg m−2 h−1. It is interesting that the evaporation rate of
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Desalination 456 (2019) 85–96
uncoated cotton system also rises to 0.56 kg m−2 h−1 when modified
with polystyrene foam. For comparison we measured the evaporation
rate of bare water as well and it measured to a value of 0.4 kg m−2 h−1
under near identical conditions. The substantial increase in water
evaporation rates can be credited to the thermal isolation by poly-
styrene foam under the coated cotton cloth. The evaporation rates were
consistent as displayed in Fig. 7c from which we can infer that the
evaporation system is suitable for long term applications.
The photo thermal efficiency of modified coated cotton cloth was
calculated to be 80.1% which is 2 times more than the modified un-
coated cloth (Table S1). Remarkably, the efficiency of coated cotton in-
creased by 1.2 times when it was modified with polystyrene foam which
suggests conduction losses are dominant in these systems and they are
required to be suppressed (Fig. 7d). The achieved evaporation efficiency
is among the highest in systems based on solar driven steam generation
in 1 sun illumination [9,15,16,21,22,33,35,40,42,44,47–49,64,65].
Few factors such as cost of production and ease of synthesis play an
important role in large scale application of solar absorbers for solar
driven steam generation. In this regard, the production cost of modified
coated cotton absorber was reduced to bare minimum with the use of
candle soot (which is a waste product obtained by combustion of par-
affin wax candles) for broadband absorption of incident light, cotton
obtained from discarded cotton clothes which provides hydrophilicity
and transport of water and finally polystyrene foam for thermal isola-
tion. These materials can be found in any common household and the
evaporation device can be manufactured by anyone due to its ultra-
simplistic design which requires no laboratory equipment or scientific
expertise. The overall cost of design of the photothermal absorber was
estimated to be < 10 dollars/m2.
3.4. Mechanism of thermal isolation for high photothermal efficiency
As detailed above, the addition of polystyrene foam to the coated
cotton cloth substantially increases the photothermal efficiency of the
H.M. Wilson et al.
receiver. The stark improvement in efficiency suggests that the down-
ward conduction losses are high and its suppression is necessary. In
order to study the mechanism in detail we analyzed the temperature
profile of the receiver under 1 sun illumination. A thermal camera was
used to observe the temperature variations of different evaporation
systems. As expected, the temperature profiles of all evaporation sys-
tems are significantly different. In Fig. 8a & b, the IR images of bare
evaporation system show no major temperature variations from top to
bottom after 30 min of direct solar illumination. This was confirmed by
measuring the temperature of bulk water at different locations of the
system (Fig. 8e).
The indifference in temperature after illumination suggests that
bulk evaporation of water is prominent in this system which also ex-
plains its low photothermal efficiency. Meanwhile the IR images of the
other three evaporation systems show distinct temperature variations
under constant 1 sun illumination. In Fig. 8c & d, the surface tem-
perature of coated cotton increased from 27 °C to 34 °C in 30 min of
direct 1 sun illumination. The increase in surface temperature is similar
to the increase displayed by bare evaporation system but the bulk water
temperature varied considerably from top to bottom of the system. The
temperature of bulk water at the bottom of the system remained con-
stant during the experiment with rate of increase in temperature rising
as we move to the top of the system. This temperature variation with
respect to distance confirms that the addition of coated cotton endorses
interfacial evaporation of water at air-water interface. Even though
coated cotton stimulates a more efficient interfacial evaporation of
water, there is an increase in bulk water temperature during the pro-
cess. This rise in temperature affirms the notion that conduction losses
in the system are high.
Fig. 9a–d shows the IR images of the evaporation systems after the
addition of polystyrene foam. In Fig. 9a & b the uncoated cotton cloth
with polystyrene foam system showed an increase of approximately
5.5 °C in 30 min of solar illumination. But in contrast to the other two
systems, the increase in temperature of underlying bulk fluid was
meagre (Fig. 9f). In Fig. 9c & d, the coated cotton with polystyrene foam
system displays excellent heat localization. Compared to the other three
evaporation systems, the average surface temperature of coated cotton
system increases rapidly to 41 °C in 30 min. The increase in surface
temperature is more than twice compared to the increase in other three
evaporation systems. It is to be noted that the surface temperature in-
creases promptly with average surface temperature of 40 °C being
realized in just 5 min of illumination (Fig. 9e). Nevertheless, the rapid
increase in surface temperature did not contribute to the increase in
temperature of bulk fluid. Thus, we can be certain that the polystyrene
foam helps in negating downward conduction losses.
For the further understanding of all the heat loss mechanisms as
shown in Fig. 10, we first calculated the conduction loss from the ab-
sorber to the underlying bulk water.
The conduction loss was calculated using the formula [30]:
Q = Cm T,
where Q, C, m and ∆T represent heat, specific heat capacity of water,
mass of water and increased bulk water temperature respectively. The
conduction loss of the evaporation system was calculated to be
~11.2%. In evaporation systems without a thermal barrier such as
polystyrene foam, the ∆T value is high which explains the high con-
duction losses in these systems. Apart from conduction losses, radiation
and convection losses are also present in the evaporation system. Ra-
diation losses of heat are inevitable and noticeably reduce the perfor-
mance of the system. The radiation losses of the system can be esti-
mated using the equation [41]:
Q= (T14 T24 )
where Q, ∈, σ, T1 and T2 are heat flux, emissivity, Stefan Boltzmann
constant, average temperature of surface and ambient temperature re-
spectively. In this equation, T14 − T24 would be very high when the
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Desalination 456 (2019) 85–96
ambient teperature is taken as the room temperature. But in evapora-
tion systems, the radiation losses would be low as the area above sur-
face of the absorber is generally covered with water vapor [27]. In our
work, the vapor temperature was measured to be 39 °C and the radia-
tion losses were ~3%. Meanwhile, convection loss of water can also be
determined using the equation [41]:
Q=h T
where Q, h = 10 W/m2 K, ∆T where Q is heat, h is heat transfer coef-
ficient and ∆T the temperature difference of absorber surface area and
ambient temperature respectively. Using the above equation, the con-
vection loss was calculated to be ~4%. In real life applications where
the enclosed system is optimized, heat losses can be tapered to even
lower values.
3.5. Applications of modified coated cotton evaporation system
The obvious applications of solar driven evaporation systems are
water desalination and water purification. To date, a large number of
reports have water desalination as the primary application of their
evaporation devices [13,15–18,21,22,43,47,66,67]. The mechanism
generally involves around the evaporation of sea water inside a solar
still and collection of condensed water vapors to obtain clean water.
Since the technique is essentially distillation of water, the removal rate
of ions in sea water by this technique is always high. Considering this
technique, we tested our evaporation device for desalination of real sea
water. For this, a trapezoidal shaped solar still was described in the
Experimental section. The homemade solar still was later filled with
actual sea water obtained from the Indian ocean. To obtain sustained
evaporation of sea water, we constructed an array of evaporation de-
vices to float on top of the water. The evaporated water was collected
after condensation in a separate chamber inside the solar still.
For quantitative analysis, the salinity of the initial and final col-
lected samples was measured using a conductivity meter. As expected,
the salinity of sea water sample gets noticeably reduced to very low
levels by desalination. In the taste test, the salty taste was eradicated
completely which hints the idea of the water being potable. We com-
pared the water sample to other water samples which are being used
currently for drinking purposes as detailed in Fig. 11a. Upon measuring
the salinity levels, the water sample named as purified water has sali-
nity levels comparable to other drinking water sources and WHO
standards. Fig. 11b shows the concentration of 4 primary ions present in
each water samples measured by ICP-OES. The concentration of each
ion in the purified water sample decreases significantly to an order of
101. The ion concentration values are clearly analogous with other
drinking water samples. The salinity values confirm the efficacy of solar
driven steam generation using the solar still and advocate its capability
to produce potable water. But in reality, the “purified” water would not
be suitable for consumption unless it’s free of bacteria. Theoretically,
the water obtained from evaporation- condensation mechanism should
be free of bacteria. It would be true for traditional steam generation
which involves boiling of bulk water as most of the bacteria are sus-
ceptible to temperature above 121 °C. But in interfacial evaporation
where the vapor temperatures are less than 100 °C in low incident il-
luminations, the water being bacteria free is dubious. Hence, to eval-
uate this notion, we studied the number of bacteria by culturing the
water samples.
Number of bacteria plays an important role in defining water
quality. As per the national standard for drinking water (ICS
13.060.20), drinking water should not contain > 1 colony forming unit
(CFU)/100 mL for total bacteria. Even though the presence of bacteria
is ubiquitous, the number of bacteria differs with different water
sources. Since the priority is to study the number of bacteria, we se-
lected sewage which tends to have a large number of bacteria, as our
test sample for these experiments. The experimentation was conducted
with the same home-made prototype used for seawater desalination
H.M. Wilson et al.
Fig. 9. (a & b) The thermal IR images of uncoated cotton under 1 sun illumination in 0 and 30 min respectively. (c & d) The thermal images of candle soot coated
modified evaporation system in 0 min and 30 min respectively under 1 sun. e) The thermal image of modified coated cotton in 5 min under 1 sun illumination. f) The
temperature increase in bulk water under different positions of the system.
Fig. 10. Schematic representation of different heat loss mechanisms in a
floating absorber based solar driven evaporation system.
93
Desalination 456 (2019) 85–96
studies as described in Experimental section. The sewage collected from
sewage canals were poured into the prototype without any prior fil-
tration. The experimentation was carried out in natural sunlight in a
closed system. The condensed water samples were collected and cul-
tured immediately to avoid faulty results (Fig. 12a & b). Aseptic con-
ditions were maintained throughout the experiment to eliminate ex-
ternal bacterial contamination. Fig. 12a and b shows the before and
after samples in the experimentation respectively.
For quantitative analysis, we calculated the colony forming units
(CFU) for each samples. Bacterial colonies were observed in the petri
plates inoculated with wastewater sample after 24 h (Fig. S7).
237 × 102 CFU of total bacteria/100 mL was observed in test sample of
sewage (Fig. 12a). In comparison, no colonies were observed in the
petri plates inoculated with treated water sample as shown in Fig. 12b.
The obtained total bacterial count was below the national standard for
drinking water (ICS 13.060.20) indicating the possibility of generating
bacteria free water. For further assessment of the sample to determine
its potential to be potable, we tested the sulphate, phosphate and ni-
trate content of the sample. As expected, the concentration of sulphate,
phosphate and nitrate contents decreased extensively as detailed in
Fig. 12d. The final ppm values of sulphate, phosphate and nitrate lie
below the standard guideline values provided by WHO for drinking
water [68]. Thus using a facile homemade prototype, we were able to
obtain clean water from sewage which strongly infers the water being
potable in real life. The experimentation for bacteria evaluation was
conducted in aseptic conditions which would be demanding but
achievable in large scale applications with periodic cleaning and further
development of the solar still prototype.
H.M. Wilson et al. Desalination 456 (2019) 85–96

Fig. 11. a) Bar graph comparing the salinity of different types of water and purified water obtained from the solar still. b) The ionic concentration of Na+, Mg2+,
Ca2+ and K+ ions in different water types.

Fig. 12. a & b) Optical photographs of bacteria colonies in sewage (a) and treated water (b) respectively. c) Optical photographs of sewage (yellowish) and treated
water respectively. d) The bar graph illustrating the nitrate, sulphate and phosphate values of sewage and treated water.

94
H.M. Wilson et al.
4. Conclusion
In summary, we introduce an extremely low cost, easy to make solar
interfacial evaporation device using low cost or recycled homemade
materials. The merit of the device lies in its facile construction which
can be done easily in any household with commonly available house-
hold materials without the requirement of any laboratory instruments.
Also, more importantly the ease in construction of the device did not
hamper its overall performance with an excellent photothermal effi-
ciency of ~80% achieved in 1 sun illumination. In addition, the eva-
poration device was efficaciously applied in water desalination and
water purification applications. A homemade solar still was designed
for this purpose which could easily remove the salinity of actual sea
water to obtain clean water akin to other conventional known drinking
waters. For the verification of the presence of bacteria in the water
samples, we cultured the water samples which affirmed that there are
no visible bacteria colonies in the purified water samples. Other testing
results such as the nitrate, phosphate and sulphate content also strongly
suggest the application of the obtained purified water sample is potable.
The desalination and water purification studies indicate the obtained
purified water sample to be safe for human consumption. The success of
our evaporation device opens up the possibility of the development of
extremely low cost and facile materials for solar driven interfacial
evaporation devices and its application in the production of completely
safe drinkable water.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by
University Grants Commission of India (UGC-MANF) and Department
of science and technology (DST-SERB-EMR/2016/003224),
Government of India.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2019.01.017.
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