Preparation and characterization of potassium hydroxide activated hydrochar

This paper presents processing and characterization of hydrochar derived from bamboo via hydrothermal carbonization at 200 °C for 4 h followed by activation at 600 °C for 2 h. The hydrochar contains hierarchical pores. The BET surface area of the hydrochar activated by KOH reached 4.5506 m2/g. KOH enhanced pore and nanofiber formation. All the bamboo-derived hydrochars can effectively harvest solar energy to evaporate seawater. The KOH-activated one showed the best performance with the maximum evaporation rate of 3.057 kg/(m2∙h).