Interfacial solar vapor generation has great potential for desalination and wastewater treatment with high energy conversion efficacy. High water evaporation rates cannot be maintained using existing techniques, however, due to unavoidable fouling or salt accumulation on the solar absorbers that cause accelerated degradation of the devices. In a recent study, Ning Xu and colleagues at the National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Artificial Functional Materials in China have demonstrated a water lily-inspired hierarchical structure to facilitate efficient solar evaporation of high salinity brine and wastewater.
* This article was originally published here
