Solar-powered Janus membrane for one-step conversion of sewage to clean water

Abstract Today, people face a global challenge of clean water shortage due to a combination of freshwater scarcity and huge sewage discharge. To preserve human sustainability, it is urgent to develop facile and inexpensive routes for the conversion of wastewater into clean water. In this work, we demonstrate a straightforward method with a solar-powered Cu@CuO/CG-aero Janus membrane. The desired optical and thermal features of the Janus membrane allow it to efficiently evaporate water under 1 sun irradiation (88% energy conversion efficiency). More importantly, the as-prepared Janus membrane can be employed for the efficient decontaminations of sewage, involving organic dyes, heavy metal ions, and pathogens (bacteria, viruses, parasites). In contrast to the traditional and complex wastewater treatment techniques, this solar-powered Janus membrane reveals many advantages (e.g., high performance, facile, handy, and low-cost) for water decontamination, which can be potentially spot-used to obtain clean water in backward areas.