Rationally Programmable Paper-Based Artificial Trees Toward Multipath Solar-Driven Water Extraction from Liquid/Solid Substrates

Solar vaporization, which is emerged as a promising candidate for harvesting solar energy in sewage purification and/or seawater desalination, has attracted increasing interests during the last few years. Although tremendous advances are made, it is still challenging to realize simple fabrication protocols, low-cost, and rationally editable 3D structures toward multipath water extraction from liquid/solid media. Inspired by natural plants with hierarchical structures rooted in soils, herein, an artificial tree of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) film/paper hybrid with tunable transpiration toward multipath water extraction under solar illumination is rationally designed. In this system, an interfacial-assisted transfer strategy is developed to alternatively transfer the self-assembled CNT films at the air/water interface onto one side of arbitrary substrates in a uniform/patterned way. The paper-based photothermal absorbers with favorable tailorability and foldability allow the transformation of the 2D evaporators to tree-like 3D ones. The achieved 3D evaporators with specific structures can extract purified water ranging from conventional liquid phase (e.g., water) to solid phase (e.g., sand), which can significantly extend the application of water extraction.