Record-breaking solar still purifies water with clever geometry and … paper?

An article on Digital Trends interviews Qiaoqiang Gan, associate professor of electrical engineering, about his research that uses the power of the sun to evaporate and sanitize water at what the researchers report to be record-breaking rates, and notes the invention could be incorporated into water purifiers called solar stills that could help provide drinking water to people in areas affected by natural disasters.

“In recent years, significant interest has developed in using sunlight for electricity-free vapor generation due to its potential to address limitations in fresh water availability around the globe,” he said. “However, when systems operate at higher temperatures, conduction, convection, and radiation losses are inevitable, and limit the overall attainable efficiency. In this new report, we developed an opposite approach, using solar energy to generate cold vapor below room temperature.”

Read the story here.