Fig. 2: Structure, morphology, and surface properties of ceramic-carbon Janus membranes.
From: Ceramic-carbon Janus membrane for robust solar-thermal desalination
a Photographs of Al2O3 substrate and ceramic-carbon Janus membrane (insets show water contact angles for the substrate and Janus membrane surface). b SEM image of membrane cross section with a ~ 3.5 μm thick solar-thermal CNT network layer. c SEM image of the feed-side surface of the ceramic-carbon Janus membrane. d Photographs of different solution droplets on the ceramic-carbon Janus membrane surface. e Wide-scan XPS spectra of the Al2O3 substrate, NiO-loaded Al2O3 substrate, and ceramic-carbon Janus membrane. f Comparison of surface porosity, average pore size, and liquid entry pressure between Al2O3 substrate and ceramic-carbon Janus membrane (i.e., CNT network), where N.D. denotes not detected. g Raman spectrum of the ceramic-carbon Janus membrane. h UV-vis−NIR absorption spectra of Al2O3 and ceramic-carbon Janus membranes in the 300–2400 nm wavelength range and standard air mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5 G) solar spectrum. i Comparison of solar absorbance between this work and existing state-of-the-art photothermal distillation membranes (Supplementary Table 3).
