Evaporative Crystallization System Based on Temperature-Responsive Hydrogel

초록

The production of sea salt is possible only through natural evaporation in some regions of the world, and in other regions, it is made by evaporative crystallization using a lot of energy. In this study, we developed a system that can continuously produce sea salt without using artificial energy by pumping seawater using a temperature-sensitive hydrogel and evaporating it. By separating the evaporating part and the pump part in the evaporative crystallizer, it was possible to separate the generated crystals without clogging by the crystals. By using poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) in the pump part, we made a system that discharges water during the day and absorbs water at night. In the evaporating part, a paper coated with reduced graphene oxide that can float on water was used to collect crystals on the underside of the paper. This eco-friendly evaporative crystallizer is likely to be used for crystallization of various materials in the future.

키워드