Solar-driven interfacial evaporation desalination has emerged as a promising strategy for alleviating the water scarcity crisis. However, the design of evaporators with excellent heat management and minimal heat loss to achieve high-efficiency clean water production remains a crucial challenge. Herein, inspired by the transpiration of mushrooms in nature, we demonstrated a bionic-structured hydrogel evaporator, fabricated with biomass lotus root starch (LR), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and ink-modified carbon quantum dots and TiO2 (i-CQDs-TiO2). The evaporated water can be instantly replenished during evaporation through the internal water circulation of the “stipe”, and the special structural design reduces the transfer of heat to the water. Therefore, the evaporator demonstrates excellent performance, with a pure water evaporation rate of up to 3.78 kg·m−2·h−1 and an efficiency of 98% (1 kW·m−2). More importantly, the evaporator has excellent salt resistance with an average evaporation rate of 3.49 kg·m−2·h−1 in 1–25 wt% brine. In addition, without salt scaling on the evaporation surface in 10 wt% brine for continuous 5 h of illumination. Furthermore, due to the coordinated photocatalysis of i-CQDs and TiO2, the catalytic degradation rates of TB and CR were up to 91.8% and 88.9%, respectively. With an efficient and stable desalination capacity, this solar evaporator with a bionic design offers a new pathway for sustainable solar desalination. 

Biomimetic hydrogel with directional heat regulation for efficient solar desalination

The pressing concern of escalating water scarcity has spurred the creation of advanced technologies, such as interfacial solar steam generation (ISSG), to tackle the challenge. ISSG employs solar energy for efficient water desalination and purification. This comprehensive review delves into various aspects of ISSG, primarily focusing on elucidating its mechanisms, optimizing substrate materials, implementing thermal management strategies, and exploring applications. The study dissects the intricate mechanism of ISSG, highlighting photothermal behaviors across different materials, including the significant role of nanoparticles in vapor generation. The impact of substrate composition and shape on solar evaporation efficiency is investigated, with multi-surface evaporators considered for environmental energy harnessing. To enhance performance, thermal management strategies, including innovative water transport paths for improved heat distribution, are assessed. Addressing key challenges like salt accumulation, biofouling, corrosion, and oil fouling, the review offers insights for issue mitigation. Practically, ISSG is spotlighted for its role in seawater desalination, wastewater treatment (e.g., dye and heavy metal removal), oil-water separation, and sterilization, extending its relevance across industries and healthcare. By comprehensively examining ISSG's mechanisms, substrate considerations, thermal strategies, and applications, this review advances its implementation as a transformative solution for global water challenges. 

Progress In Interfacial Solar Steam Generation Using Low-Dimensional and Biomass-Derived Materials

Biomass-enhanced Janus sponge-like hydrogel with salt resistance and high strength for efficient solar desalination

Architecting Janus hydrogel-fabric coupled evaporator for eliminating salt accumulation and highly efficient solar-driven brine desalination

A self-floating Janus PPy@Ni sponge salt-resisting solar evaporator for efficient interfacial evaporation

Interfacial evaporation using light-absorbing hydrogels offers efficient solar evaporation performance under natural sunlight, ensuring an affordable clean water supply. However, achieving light-absorbing hydrogels with durable and efficient utilization is still a challenge due to inevitable salt accumulation, a difficult-to-control surface morphology, and poor mechanical properties on the surfaces of hydrogel-based evaporators. In this work, a photothermal sponge-like hydrogel with a 3D interconnected porous structure was constructed using low-cost activated carbon as a photothermal material, as well as a double-network polymer chain as the basic skeleton using a simple foaming polymerization strategy. The sponge-like hydrogel evaporator showed tailored surface topography, adequate water transport, excellent elasticity and toughness, good salt rejection, and thermal localization properties. Under the irradiation of simulated sunlight (1.0 kW/m2), a high evaporation rate of 2.33 kg·m-2·h-1 was achieved. Furthermore, efficient salt self-cleaning behavior was achieved due to the fast ion diffusion within the 3D interconnected porous structures. Even in highly concentrated brine of 15 wt %, continuous and efficient water evaporation was still achieved. The excellent evaporation and salt rejection properties of this photothermal sponge-like hydrogel indicated its promising long-term sustainable utilization in seawater desalination.

Sustainable Self-Cleaning Evaporators for Highly Efficient Solar Desalination Using a Highly Elastic Sponge-like Hydrogel.

Solar evaporative desalination technology is one of the most promising technologies to alleviate freshwater shortages, but the preparation of an inexpensive and sustainable 3D substrate remains a challenge. Lignocellulosic sponge (LS) is a commercial product that is widely available, clean, renewable, degradable, inexpensive, and porous. In this work, LS was found to be a good substrate for photothermal evaporation. LS has good compatibility with polypyrrole (PPy), which has excellent photothermal conversion performance. A simple and effective photothermal conversion evaporator (PPy-LS) was obtained by in situ polymerization of pyrrole on the surface of LS by chemical oxidation. The as-prepared PPy-LS exhibited good light absorption and thermal management capabilities, possessing an evaporation rate of 1.85 kg m–2 h–1 and an evaporation efficiency of 88.65% at 1 sunlight. PPy-LS also had excellent mechanical properties, superhydrophilicity, and water absorption. Combined with its porous network structure, PPy-LS exhibited good salt tolerance in 10 wt % NaCl solution and excellent thermal management capability. The PPy-LS solar evaporation device has the advantages of a simple preparation method, good durability, and sustainability, which provides an important direction for solar interface evaporation. 

Sustainable Lignocellulose-Based Sponge Coated with Polypyrrole for Efficient Solar Steam Generation

Solar‐driven interfacial evaporation technology offers a promising method for sustainable freshwater production. Hydrogels have emerged as promising materials for interfacial evaporation, as they possess the capability to activate water molecules and lower the enthalpy required for evaporation. However, monolithic hydrogels fail to meet the diverse water content requirements in different evaporation regions. In this study, a thermoresponsive hydrogel (CSAm) capable of spontaneously forming Janus structures under sunlight illumination was designed. CSAm exhibited reversible solar‐induced wetting transition, enabling efficient evaporation with asymmetric wetting properties during the day and self‐cleaning of salts with hydrophilic wetting properties during the night. This transition of Janus structures allows for the regulation of water content distribution within the evaporator, meeting the diverse water content requirements of different evaporation regions. CSAm was composed of a thermoresponsive polymer, poly(N, N‐diethylacrylamide), and a hydrophilic polymer, polyacrylamide, crosslinked to form a scaffold structure. The uniform dispersion of photothermal material (CuS) within the gel scaffold is achieved using lignosulfonates. This study investigated the Janus structure characteristics, photo/thermo‐responsive properties, salt resistance, and evaporation performance. Under 1 sun illumination (1kW m‐2), CSAm exhibited a high evaporation rate of 2.67 kg m‐2 h‐1 and demonstrated long‐term stability in seawater desalination.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Self Responsive Janus Hydrogel with Alternation of Day and Night for Highly Efficient Solar Evaporation

Alpha-ketoglutaric acid (α-KG), as an essential intermediate in biosynthesis and drug synthesis, has a broad application prospect. However, the lower product concentration and impurities in the α-KG production make the downstream separation more complex and costly. In this study, α-KG was separated from biotransformation broth by salting-out extraction (SOE) combined with solar-driven distillation. First, the aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) consisting of acetone/(NH4)2SO4 was selected by comparison. The effects of acetone/(NH4)2SO4 concentration, temperature, α-KG concentration, and pH on the distribution behavior of α-KG in ATPS were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, higher extraction efficiency and purity of α-KG were obtained in the actual biotransformation broth. In addition, solar evaporation was used to achieve preconcentration of the organic phase and salt recovery, significantly reducing energy consumption. The method is environmentally friendly and easy to operate, providing a new idea for separating low concentration products in biosynthesis. 

Separation of α‐ketoglutaric acid by salting‐out extraction coupled with solar‐driven distillation

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