Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 13, 2025
Author Spotlight: Eco-Friendly Extraction of Bioactive Compounds Using Polyol-Based Microwave-Assisted Techniques
Published on: August 23, 2024
Preparation of efficient photothermal materials from waste coffee grounds for solar evaporation and water
Chih-Feng Wang1,2, Chih-Lin Wu3, Shiao-Wei Kuo4
1Advanced Membrane Materials Research Center, Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, 106, Taiwan. cfwang@mail.ntust.edu.tw.
Abstract:
Effective water use is currently a critical global challenge needed to prevent water shortages and has attracted significant research attention. The realization of solar-driven water evaporation by using effective converters has attracted considerable attention in recent years owing to its potential for seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. Consequently, this paper proposes a simple two-step method to prepare low-cost and self-floating photothermal converters from waste coffee grounds. First, the coffee grounds were carbonized at 1,000 °C to develop broadband absorption, and the carbonized coffee grounds were modified using hydrophobic silane to enhance the water-floatation property of the grounds. The prepared hydrophobic carbonized coffee grounds exhibited good performance for desalination and water purification under sunlight irradiation. The self-floatation ability, low cost, well solar evaporation performance, and easy preparation contribute to the promising potential of using hydrophobic carbonized coffee grounds infuture steps toward eco-friendly desalination procedures.
