Me204

The UHPLC-MS/MS system consists of a Triple Quad™ LC-MS/MS 5500+ system (SCIEX, Framingham, MA, USA) and an Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography UHPLC, ExionLC™ AD (Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan). Xinzhi SB25-12DTD ultrasonic bath (Ningbo, China) was used for ultrasonic-assisted extraction. Vortex-Genie 2 (Scientific Industries, Bohemia, NY, USA) was used to mix the sample solution. A heating and drying oven (Jinghong DHG-9240A, Shanghai, China) was used for drying and heat treatment of samples. An electronic analytical balance (Mettler-Toledo ME204, Zurich, Switzerland) was used to weigh the samples accurately. A medical refrigerator (Aucma YCD-265, Qingdao, China) was used to store experimental samples. A 0.22 µm syringe filter (Biosharp life sciences, Hefei, China) was used for sample filtration. Centrifugation of the sample solution was performed using a 5418 high-speed centrifuge (Eppendorf Corp., Hamburg, Germany).

The solar‐driven steam generation performance of the prepared LSCF/Ti₃C₂ hydrogel was checked by operating it under simulated solar intensity using a solar simulator (PLS‐FX300HU) provided with an AM 1.5 solar filter. The intensity of the simulated solar flux was controlled using a CEL‐NP2000‐2 power meter (Beijing Education Au‐light Co., Ltd.). An advanced electronic balance enables measuring with 0.001 g precision (Mettler Toledo, ME204) and was connected to a computer to record the time‐dependent mass variations to measure the evaporation rate. The surface temperatures of different systems of the top layer were recorded using two thermocouples (OMEGA, INSP# 33306, 5TC‐TT‐K‐30‐197) connected with the acquisition system (KEYSIGHT, 34972A). An inductively coupled plasma‐optical emission spectrometry (ICP‐OES, EP Optimal 8000) was employed to measure the concentration of primary salt ions in the simulated and condensed water. All the experiments were performed at room temperature of ≈23 °C and humidity level of ≈55–50%.

FESEM (JSM6701, JEOL, Akishima, Japan) at 5 kV acceleration voltage was used to determine the cross-sectional morphology of the mixed-matrix membranes. The membranes were fractured under liquid nitrogen prior to the gold coating process. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR, PerkinElmer, Spectrum One, Waltham, MA, USA) was used to understand the functional groups of the pure polymeric membrane. The measurement was conducted in the range of 4000 to 450 cm⁻¹ with a 4 cm⁻¹ resolution. TGA (SDT Q600, TA instrument, New Castle, DE, USA) was used to determine the thermal properties of both mixed-matrix and polymeric membranes. Similarly, $dm/dT$ was also calculated to investigate the behavior of membranes developed in this work. Temperature scan (40 to 800 °C) and ramping rate at 10 °C min⁻¹ (together with the purging of pure nitrogen at 100 mL min⁻¹) were set. An analytical balance with a density kit feature (Mettler Toledo, ME204, Columbus, OH, USA) was utilized to determine the respective density of mixed-matrix and polymeric membranes. This value was calculated by measuring the sample in both auxiliary liquid (ethanol) and air using Archimedes’ principle.

FESEM was used to investigate the cross-sectional morphologies of membranes under uniform accelerating voltage conditions. The membranes were fractured before Platinum coating (with the use of liquid nitrogen) to preserve the overall morphologies. FTIR and XRD analyses were conducted with the same settings as above to investigate the properties of the membranes. Similarly, thermogravimetric analysis was used to investigate the thermal stability of the membranes with the same settings as mentioned above. An analytical balance (ME204, Mettler Toledo, Columbus, OH, USA) equipped with a density kit was used to determine the membranes’ densities. This measurement was conducted by computing the difference in the mass of the samples in an auxiliary liquid (ethanol) and air via Archimedes’ principle. The density of the membrane, ρ, can be computed from Equation (4): $\rho =\frac{\mathrm{A}}{\mathrm{A}-\mathrm{B}}\left({\rho }_L-{\rho }_A\right)+{\rho }_A$
In this equation, A—mass of the membrane sample in air; B—mass of the membrane sample in the auxiliary liquid; ${\rho }_L$ —density of the auxiliary liquid; ${\rho }_A$ —density of air. The calculated value can be accurately determined up to 4 decimal places, based on the precision of the analytical balance.

The solar-driven evaporation experiments were conducted via a solar simulator (PLS-FX300HU, Beijing Perfect light Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing, China) capable of simulating multiple solar intensities. An optical filter was employed to provide a 1.5 G AM spectrum. The as-prepared TiO₂/AC was floated over the water surface in a petty dish for the steam generation experiments. The solar intensity was set at 1 kW m⁻² (one sun), and the device was placed under a solar beam spot. The time-dependent mass change was recorded using an electronic analytical balance (Mettler Toledo, ME204, Singapore ) with a resolution of 0.001 g. The whole setup was allowed to stabilize for 30 min, and the evaporation rate of the system was measured under one sun illumination. The surface temperature was measured using a thermal infrared image camera (FLIR E4 Pro, Wuhan Guide Sensmart Tech Co., Ltd., Wuhan, China) which employed two temperature sensing thermo-couples mounted on the photothermal surface and bottom surface, respectively. An inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (CP-OES, EP Optimal 8000, Perkin Elmer, San Jose, CA, USA) was employed to measure the salt ion concentrations in the saline water and condensed water. The whole experimental process was conducted under ambient conditions, at a temperature (~26 °C) and humidity of ~46%.

To quantitatively measure the degree of damage to Bt and non-Bt rice plants by 3^rd-instar larvae of C. suppressalis, a bioassay was conducted in which Bt and non-Bt rice stems were provided to the larvae for 24 h. A thin, moist layer of absorbent cotton was laid on the bottom of a Petri dish (6 cm diameter) and a moistened filter paper (5.5 cm diameter) was placed on the cotton layer. Subsequently two 4–5-cm segments that were cut from the middle part of the main rice plant stems were placed onto the filter paper. One end of the stem segment was covered with saturated cotton wool to keep the rice stems fresh. After being weighed on an electronic balance (Mettler Toledo ME204, Zurich, Switzerland; 220 g full scale, d = 0.0001 g), the 3^rd-instar larvae of C. suppressalis were individually transferred to each Petri dish. The Petri dish then was sealed with Parafilm. A total of 29 and 37 larvae were tested for Bt and non-Bt rice, respectively. The insects were kept in an environmental chamber (RXZ, 380 L, Ningbo Jiangnan Instrument Factory, Zhejiang, China) under a 16 L:8 D photoperiod at 27 ± 1 °C, 70 ± 5% RH. After 24 h feeding, C. suppressalis larvae were weighed again, and the weight increase of each insect was calculated.

After 15 days of testing, magnetite deposits on triplicate coupons from each tested condition were gently washed away with N₂-saturated ultrapure water to reveal the extent of corrosion. Subsequently, the corrosion products on the exposed surface were removed by ultrasonically cleaning the coupons for 1 min in Clarke’s solution, as described in the ASTM G1-03 Standard (ASTM 2017 ). Afterwards, the weight of the cleaned metal samples was measured using a high-accuracy mass balance (Mettler Toledo, ME204), and general corrosion rates in mm/year were estimated based on the weight loss and surface area of the metal samples (ASTM 2017 ).
Exposed surfaces of the triplicate coupons were also analysed using a 3D surface profilometer (Solarius™, SolarScan) with a spot size of 10–100 µm and resolution of 0.2 µm to find the maximum intrusion depth on each coupon. The pitting rate was estimated by dividing the deepest point (mm) found in each condition by the exposure time in days, as described in the NACE SP0775 standard practice (NACE 2013 ).