Challenges and Opportunities for Solar Evaporation

Solar evaporation is an ancient technology that has regained tremendous attention because of the abundance of solar energy, widely available water sources, and facile facilities in combination with substantial improvements of conversion efficiency enabled by improved photothermal materials, thermal management, and interfacial heating system designs in recent years. In this review, we discuss recent developments in photothermal materials, with a focus on their photothermal conversion mechanisms as light absorbers. We also explore the diverse structural design and engineering strategies that are being used to improve evaporation performance, including the design principles for high-efficiency light-to-heat conversion, optimization of thermal management, water transport, interface wettability, and anti-salt-blocking structures. We describe the potential applications of this attractive technology in a variety of energy and environmental fields. The current challenges and future research opportunities are also discussed, providing a roadmap for the future development of solar evaporation technology.