Recent advances and challenges for solar-driven water evaporation system toward applications

Solar-driven water evaporation system has attracted enormous attention in recent years. This is due to the widespread use of natural sources such as solar energy and water sources as a river, lake, or oceans, and high photothermal conversion efficiency via improving photothermal absorbers, thermal management, and interfacial heating system, etc. In this progress report, advances in the recent development of photothermal materials, design of structures and engineering strategies which include the design principles for high-efficiency light-to-heat conversion, optimization of thermal management, transporting water, interface wettability, salt rejection, and hybrid systems for improving evaporation rate are carefully reviewed. The potential application of this technology in desalination of seawater, purification of water, production of energy, separation of liquids, outdoor removal of paraffin deposited on the wall of oil pipelines, etc. are highlighted. Finally, the prospects and challenges of the future development of solar-driven water evaporation technology are discussed.