Review on solar-driven evaporator: Development and applications

Solar-driven evaporation is capable of efficiently and conveniently generating steam from water, which has been developed in the novel applications of evaporation power generation, steam sterilization, and fresh water extraction from seawater. It has been confirmed to be promising to reduce energy shortage and water scarcity. In this review, the design points of evaporators are summarized and integrated, and the main factors for the efficiency and long-term performance of evaporators are discussed (e.g., the selection of photothermal materials and the development of key components to achieve high-performance evaporation). Furthermore, the possibilities, opportunities, and challenges of solar-driven evaporation in energy conversion are described by exemplifying the latest research progress.