Recent advances and challenges for bionic solar water evaporation

Abstract

Solar water evaporation is a sustainable, efficient, and environmental friendly solution to the freshwater production and energy crisis, which is drawing intensive research interest in recent years all over the world. In this work, we systematically summarize the design principles and recent progress of solar evaporators inspired by nature. Evaporation systems with bionic structures such as roots, stems, leaves, and even animal tissues can not only promote water transport inside the absorbers but also accelerate the solar water evaporation process, leading to a high evaporation rate and energy conversion efficiency. Most significantly, the promising applications of solar vapor generation for seawater desalination, water purification, electricity generation, evaporative cooling and photocatalytic degradation are also highlighted. Finally, the prospects and challenges of the future development of solar water evaporation are discussed in detail.