Fig. 4: Periodic operation of the proposed solar vapor generator and crystallizer (SVGC).
a Water mass changes for full-day evaporation experiments during the day and night operation. b Optical images for mangrove-mimicked SVGC after one day cycle (yellow box) and after one-night cycle (grey box) using water of various salinities. c Summary of the water vapor and salt harvesting coproduction during day and night. d Comparison between clean and salty evaporation devices in terms of mass change. e The computational domain for COMSOL V5.6 simulation (left subplot) to study the effect of salinity on salt concentration profile along the evaporator length. Middle and right subplots in (e) show experimental and simulated steady-state concentration profiles for 12 wt.% saline water, respectively. The green line/curve represents c/csat = 1 (right subplot). f Variation in precipitation-free stem length to the total evaporation length (lsat / L) as a function of dimensionless salt concentration (c/csat). g Computational domain for COMSOL V5.6 simulation to estimate the back diffusion coefficient using single-leaf evaporator and its volumetric concentration profile at t = 6 h in mol/m3, (h) Variation in salt concentration (wt.%) over time at z = 22 mm (solid black line for simulation, scatter points for experiments). The inset image of Fig. 4h shows experimental setup to study back diffusion. i IR imaging of the liquid propagation through patchy salt and the corresponding wicking distance over time.
