Sustainable development of graphitic carbon nanosheets from plastic wastes with efficient photothermal energy conversion for enhanced solar evaporation

Abstract

We demonstrate that by a simple solvothermal treatment followed by carbonization, plastic waste can be turned into graphitic carbon nanosheets, with an excellent photothermal conversion efficiency (99%) that is capable of generating a high evaporation rate (1.50 L m⁻² h⁻¹ at 1 kW m⁻²) in a solar evaporator, and these are among the best values reported thus far.